


Midmorning Coffees and Therapy Sessions

by wereworm



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: AU- they don't go back in time and the ua doesnt get blown up bc i dont want that, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coffee Shops, Descriptions of a Panic Attack, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, POV Outsider, WHY CANT THEY BE HAPPY?????, a lil bit of blood and stuff but not much, hazel gets mentioned and he's on a romantic cruise with agnes!!!, i mean like yeah he gets mentioned but does he get screenime? lmao fuck no, luther just doesn't fucking exist in this, no beta i die ... i just die, so like if that's bad for you be careful!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 07:33:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18406043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wereworm/pseuds/wereworm
Summary: Local woman working at coffeeshop accidentally adopts a child and gives advice with a focus on getting closer to siblings when she, herself, has a sub-optimal relationship with her sister.Or the time Five went to get a good cup of coffee and ended up slowly befriending the barista while trying to reconnect with the siblings he hasn't seen his childhood without the looming threat of the apocalypse anymore.





	Midmorning Coffees and Therapy Sessions

**Author's Note:**

> ohhhhhh boy. I wrote the first 20k in a week then I realised school and stopped. then a month later I came back and finished it off so here's an obligatory coffeeshop au.  
> pls take this and be happy. it was meant to just be 4,000 words and im dead inside now.  
> p.s. my computer is broken so typing this was really annoying.

Mondays are always slow, so when the bell over the door chimes, Louise had just been leaning against the counter watching people walking past through the front window. With only a thin crowd of people walking past it had been exceedingly dull. School drop offs and the morning rush to work had come and gone over an hour ago and it was still far too early for people to be leaving for lunch. Pulling back from the counter, Louise drags herself up straight to welcome the customer and is taken aback when she sees the person who’d walked in.

The boy that came in was peculiar. The way he looked seemed normal enough with his school blazer and shorts but the way he carries himself as he waltzes to the counter – for there really was no better word to describe it – belie someone much more dangerous than a young boy. The smile he sends Louise as he slips onto one of the stools in front of her is perfectly sweet and innocent yet she can’t help but think there is something lurking beneath the surface of his immaculately put together persona.

She smiles back and asks, “Good morning, what can I get you?”

“Just a black coffee.”

His response is swift and almost disbalancing. She looks him over again and he barely looks to be in high school; nowhere near the age when his parents should be letting him drink coffee. Despite knowing that he came in alone, she still casts a look over his shoulder to see if an adult had followed him in. There’s no one else. Oh well, she might as well.

“Sure. Were you wanting that to have here or take away?”

She moves to the other side of the counter to grind the beans and grabs a mug from the rack as he says, “Have here.”

As she waits for the coffee to be ready, Louise peers at the boy from the corner of her eye. Up close, there’s something familiar about the uniform he’s wearing but as far as she can tell it’s not from any of the schools she or her friends had attended. Pouring the coffee into the mug she places it before him along with a serviette and a shaker of sugar.

Without so much as a look in her direction, he pushes it away and says, “I don’t take sugar in my coffee.”

She shrugs and steps back, leaning against the counter on the other side, giving him a moment to take a sip of his coffee. He does so and immediately he grimaces and puts it back down, blowing on it quickly as he does. _Too hot_ , Louise realises. _He’s going to have to wait until it’s cooled down a bit before drinking that and it doesn’t look like he brought any books or anything with him._ She gives him a minute to pull something out of his pocket to entertain himself, but he just sits there staring into the mug with a distant gaze, and she decides to start a conversation.

She worries for a moment how it would look – a grown woman chatting with a young boy who is suspiciously alone – but Louise decides that if he shows any discomfort, she’ll leave him alone. Simple as that and if anyone asks, she’s just providing good customer service. _God, her boss would love that._

“So,” Louise drawls, “You’re skipping.”

He looks up at her, a confused look on his face, “What makes you say that?”

“It’s Monday and you’re wearing a school uniform.”

He looks down at himself as if he’d forgotten what he was wearing and a quiet “ah” crosses his lips.

“I’ve been –” he pauses, as if looking for the right word, “– overseas. Just got back a week ago and these were the only clothes I had that fit me.”

Louise raises an eyebrow, “must have been gone a while.”

He smirks, “You could say that.”

Louise accepts the statement for what it is and asks, “So where’d you go?”

“What is this, speed-dating?”

“What?” Louise stammers.

He tilts his head, “You’re asking an awful lot of questions for someone I just met.”

“Firstly,” Louise says, punctuating the statement with a raised finger. “Gross. Secondly, gross and thirdly, what else am I meant to be doing? I can only clean the tables so many times.”

He shrugs, accepting her answer, and takes another sip of his coffee.

"So, why'd you come back?" Louise asks.

Sending her a wry smile, he confides, "Arguably for many reasons, some more noble and others more selfish," there's a mocking tone in his voice, "But the truth is I came back for my family."

Huh, it's oddly sweet and Louise isn't sure why she didn't expect it given his young age. Even when Louise had just moved out of the house for university she's still been wracked with homesickness and a longing to see her parents for at least a month. She couldn't imagine being in another country from her parents when she wasn't even out of primary school.

"Fair. How's it going? Being back with your family after so long? You got any siblings you missed? Any friends?"

He stares at her, an indecipherable expression on his face.

"Frankly, I don't see how that's any of your business," he bites out and, draining the last of his coffee, he places it on the counter along with a five dollar note and gets up to leave.

Panic fills Louise and she calls out, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

He pauses and sends her a cold look, “I’ve got to be heading home now but I’ll probably be back tomorrow. You won’t believe how hard it is to get a good cup of coffee around here.”

She interprets what he says to mean that she hadn't completely overstepped her boundaries. Relief blooms in Louise’s chest and she lets out a quiet sigh of relief, “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

He sends a final nod and adjusts the breast of his blazer before spinning on the spot and leaving. There’s something almost comical about the way he purposefully strides across the floor, with all the purpose of a businessma. He pulls the door open and lets it slam shut behind him, the bell tinkling loudly in the empty store. From the other side of the glass door, the boy twitches as if he wants to look back but he doesn’t and instead he walks away, disappearing from Louise’s field of view.

Despite knowing that she'd narrowly survived stepping on a landmine, Louise can't help but feel curious as to why the boy was so unwilling to talk about his family. Even her sister would spend hours talking about her husband if given the opportunity; people love talking about their loved ones.

Sighing, Louise grabs the cloth and runs it under the tap for a moment before squeezing it out and walking out from behind the counter to clean the tables again.

 

*

 

When the next day came, Louise had nearly forgotten that the boy might be coming again but, in the same lull in the morning as yesterday, the bell chimes again and he’s striding purposefully to the counter. Louise had been cleaning the coffee machine when he sat on the same stool as the previous day and she sent him a quick smile before quickly finishing.

“Morning, wasn’t sure I’d see you again.”

He smiles at her, or at least Louise thinks it’s meant to be a smile because it looks more like a grimace.

“A black coffee, right?”

“To have here.”

The two of them follow this script for a few weeks with him coming in some time in the morning when the store is quiet and ordering a coffee, sitting down and staring blanking at a wall while sipping it, slowly. If he'd faced the window while he drank his coffee, Louise would be able to understand it but his eyes never waver once from the cleanly painted wall behind her back.

 Normally she'd try and strike up a conversation with him after the first few times he didn't pull out a phone or a book but something about the distant look in his eyes stills her tongue. Louise likes getting to know her regulars and he'd seemed like he would be interesting. Then again, first impressions could be wrong and while he had seemed to be entertaining and witty, his blunt honesty could easily be just be him being a douchebag. Still, he didn't seem like the sort and the silence they shared was never uncomfortable in that way.

It had been uncomfortable at the start, having to stay silent for the half an hour he stayed. Usually, if she'd been left alone Louise would sing along to the jazz radio that played quietly in the background to entertain herself while she watched the people walk by but she got the feeling he wouldn't like that. Instead, she'd always awkwardly hover near where he sat in case he wanted a refill. He never did but Louise eventually figured out that, much like a cat, he didn't need her attention but was rather happy to just sit there with her nearby.

When she first understood that, Louise had stood there in shock before taking in his appearance again. His shoulders were hanging loose, and he must have been swinging his legs because every once in a while, she hears him kick the counter by mistake. His face had lost the tension it had when he had first walked in and he looked calm, or as calm as he can look. After a few moments she had moved towards him and propped her face in her hands on the counter and started watching the people walk past. As she did so, she could see him sending her a curious look from the corner of her eye and it seemed as if they had reached an understanding.

Instead of just hovering nearby like the parents that should have been here with him, Louise starts just ignoring him and watching the people walk past outdoors, just like she would do when the store is empty. She settles into this new habit of making him a coffee then ignoring him until he nods at her and pays before leaving with startling ease.

Today when she's preparing his coffee, she notices that he looks tired, with bags under his eyes and his hands nervously twitching. For a second, she questions whether she should be letting him drink more caffeine but then again, she’s not his mother. Pushing the mug in his direction, he takes the spoon from on top of the serviette and although he doesn’t add any sugar, he still puts the spoon in the mug and slowly stirs it. Three spins to the right for every two the left, the movements are so slow the coffee barely moves. He watches the spoon cut through the coffee and doesn’t look her in the eye.

“Didn’t sleep well?” She asks before she can stop herself and his head snaps up.

The glare he sends her is terrifying and when he speaks, his voice is low and dangerous, “Why do you care?”

For a second, she’s scared of the aggressive tone but as she takes in his body language she notices that his shoulders are hunched and his grip has tightened on the spoon, hand pale where he grasps the handle. His eyes, although cold look confused and she realises that he’s just defensive. 

“Look, kid. If you want me to leave you alone then I can but I think you’re the most interesting thing in the shop at the moment and if you’re down for making awkward small-talk, then so am I.”

He’s silent, looking Louise over like he’s appraising her, and she holds her breath, waiting for his verdict. God, if he told his parents about the creepy lady at the coffeeshop who kept asking him personal questions her entire future would be fucked. And how would she even defend herself from that.

_“Don’t worry Ma’am, I was just really fucking bored and your son was the only customer. It was talk to him or sit in silence and holy fuck I do enough of that.”_

_Yeah, that would go down well._ She’s so caught up in her own thoughts that she almost doesn’t notice when he starts stirring his coffee again. He’s looking away from her, back at his coffee.

“I hate small-talk.”

It’s so quiet that Louise almost misses it, even in the near silence of the empty store, the current song fading out.

Louise snorts. “Who doesn’t?”

“My sister. Allison lives off small-talk.”

_So, he has a sister_. If this were anyone else Louise would have asked more about her but she didn’t want to scare the kid off. Her mother had always said that she had a habit of forcing information out of people she wants to be friends with. Her sister just calls her a nosy bitch.

“My sister hates small-talk. She’s thinks people should just get to the point.”

He’s stopped looking at his coffee and he’s looking at her with an intensity that has Louise panicking. Several years ago Louise had looked after one of her friend’s toddlers while she and her husband had gone to a wedding and the stress she feels now when confronted with this child is almost the same as the fear she’d experienced when she’d fist met the toddler and had been trying to figure out how to be a good influence. The kid is listening to her and he doesn’t seem ready to snark at her like the absolute asshole he was on that first day with his half-answers and lack of manners. Looking back, Louise realises that he’s just an insecure and defensive kid who probably uses his words and attitude as a shield. _Damn, I should be studying psychology not law._

Deciding to continue the conversation, “I like small-talk,” Louise begins, “It’s a nice way to get to know someone without asking them the big questions. You pick up on the little things that help put together a bigger picture. It’s more fun that way rather than having them do the work for you.”

“What do you mean ‘the little things’?” He seems genuinely curious.

Louise pauses for a moment, “Well, if you start a conversation about the weather you can tell a whole bunch of things about them; whether they’re an introvert or an extrovert, whether they’re optimistic or pessimistic and all that jazz. You start off with something like the weather and you pick up on the personal details and ask about them. That’s the secret, kid –” Louise notices him grimace at the title and notes not to use it again – “people love talking about themselves.”

“If that ain’t the truth,” he mutters.

“You start off with the little things and pick up the small details which let you ask something more personalised.” Louise strikes a pose and with a strange inflection with her voice continues, “Ah, you like stormy weather because you get to sit inside and listen to the rain while reading, hmm? Well, what’s your favourite book?”

His lips twitch up in what could be a smile and his body loses some of the tension that was holding it so oddly still. It’s one of the things that Louise had noticed about him; whenever he’d sit down, he’d barely move unless he had a reason to. There was no awkward fidgeting or shuffling to get more comfortable, just a complete lack of motion.

“See,” Louise exclaims, “Then they talk about their favourite books and you pick up on something else and ask about that and it all continues from there. Rinse and repeat. It’s like a ball of wool, once you find one end you just tug and the whole thing unrolls.”

 He nods along slightly, like the students in her lectures who actually listen to what the teachers say do. She thinks of herself as some old coot who got up in front of a class of kids and taught them the art of starting conversations with strangers and cringes. God, and with the kid still in that school uniform, it’s like he walked straight out of that nightmare.

“So,” Louise says coyly, “What’s your favourite book?”

He gapes at her, well as close to gaping as the boy gets. Then he lets out a huff of laughter and it brightens his entire countenance, making him look more like the child he is.

“My sister wrote a book and it was the only book I had while I was overseas so I’ve read it hundreds of times.”

It’s so oddly sweet that Louise finds herself gaping at him.

“Is this Allison?” Louise asks and he snorts.

“No, my other sister.”

Louise whistles, “I can barely put up with one. How do you manage two?”

He frowns, “With great difficulty but it’s still easier than having to put up with me.”

Louise wishes she could deny it but the boy isn’t the nicest person she’s ever met. He’s not the worst but he’s grating and somewhat rude. If he gave two fucks about being polite he wouldn’t be a bad kid but he seems perfectly aware of his personality deficiencies and doesn’t seem like he’s about to change any time soon. Still, he isn’t that bad. At least from what Louise can tell.

“I’m sure you’re not that bad,” Louise tries to comfort.

He immediately glares at her, “Don’t treat me like a child,” he bites out.

Louise lifts her hands in surrender and he sighs like a putout parent and says, “This is what I’m talking about.”

“You’ll figure it out. My sister’s way worse than you and as long as you learn her language, it’s all good. People don’t always communicate in the same way and most people don’t bother learning how other people communicate. My sister’s friends and her husband know her and how she communicates so they can put up with her shit.”

Louise leans forward, making eye contact with the boy, “And if your family doesn’t know how to read you, that’s on them. You should try to compromise a bit and learn how they communicate and express themselves but it’s a two-way street, buddy, and as long as you’re trying, it’s not your fault.”

He stares at her for a moment before pulling a five out of his pocket and placing it on the table. As he’s getting up to leave, he mutters a “thanks” and briskly walks out of the shop.

 

*

 

When he comes in on Wednesday morning Louise is preparing a couple of coffees for some particularly pretentious twenty-something year olds who were horrified that her store didn’t have coconut milk and were disgusted with the brand of soy milk they had so settled for almond milk. She really deserves to be paid more. The only other customer that she had to deal with was a regular and luckily enough she was one of Louise’s favourites. She’d always order a skinny cappuccino in a mug and drink it over half an hour while tapping away at her computer in the corner. Louise casts a glance over to her but her hair has fallen in front of her face and she looks invested in whatever she’s writing at the moment, not even looking up when the boy comes in. Louise envies her single-minded focus.

As he walks past Skinny Cap – a nickname Louise had gifted her when she realised she had totally forgotten her name and it was too late to ask for it again – he glances at her with an expression of familiarity but says nothing. He walks past her and comes up to his stool and sits down. Louise side-eyes him but he doesn’t say anything, seemingly content to sit in silence. His lips are pursed and his mouth twisted downwards, eyes fixed on his hands that are clasped in his lap like a shamed schoolboy. It’s almost funny because he’s in his uniform again and Louise wonders when he’s going to buy normal clothes.

She hands the couple their coffees and makes a long black in a mug, sliding it in front of him. She leans against the counter and waits for him to talk.

“I tried what you said,” he says.

Louise raises an eyebrow and it takes her a few seconds to realise that he’s still looking at his hands and can’t see the action.

“And?” she prompts.

“And I fucked up.”

He takes a sip of his coffee.

“I’m not really good at talking to people,” he confesses to her.

Louise laughs, “No shit.”

He sends her a nasty look and Louise shrugs before gesturing for him to continue.

“Everyone thinks I’m an asshole.”

Louise raises an eyebrow at him.

“I _am_ an asshole but I don’t really remember how to talk to people anymore.”

Jesus, when did Louise become some toddler’s shrink? She sighs, planting her arms firmly on the counter and leaning down. It brings her closer to his level and Louise sees that he’s genuinely broken up about it.

“Look, I can’t fix you only you can …” Louise pauses form her generic spiel of self-help as the second half of his sentence sinks in. “What do you mean you don’t know how to talk to people anymore?”

His eyes dart away from her for a second before focusing somewhere just past her ear, close to looking her in the face but not quite.

“I told you how I went overseas, yes?”

Louise nods, “Uh-huh,” and normally she would barely remember about anyone, even the regulars but there was just something about the peculiar boy with the knee-high socks and bad manners that made it easy for Louise to remember their conversations.

“I was overseas for a few years, at least three,” he says, and there’s something quite odd about the phrasing but Louise doesn’t want to make him clam up by calling him out on it.

“I lived alone for the entire time,” he continues, “I didn’t see another living soul for the entire time and I had to be entirely self-sufficient. Cook for myself, teach myself, the whole box and dice.”

_Holy shit. No wonder the kid seems so fucked up,_ Louise thinks. How do you even reply to that?

“That sucks, man.”

_No, that’s not how she should’ve replied to that._ Just as Louise is about to try and backtrack and salvage the situation the boy laughs. It comes out hoarse, like he hasn’t laughed in a long time, and sounds more like a sob, but it’s still a laugh.

“Yeah, it did suck.”

If the kid was a friend or her sister, Louise would already be hugging him so hard. But he’s just some random kid she’s spoken to all of three times who has decided that apparently, coffeeshop girl Louise is the one to open up to. Instead, she settles for a pat on the shoulder. The blazer, Louise finds out, is just as stiff as it looked but still not as stiff as the boy becomes when she touches him. It’s moments too late that Louise connects that three years in isolation would mean three years without any contact. As sad as the realisation is, Louise’s heart truly breaks when, after a moment of stiffness, he relaxes completely, melting like putty under her hand, and the urge to hug him becomes unbearable. She just barely stops herself from vaulting over the counter and pulling him close to her. Maybe she should call her mother after her shift, to check up on her and see how she’s been?

After a moment she pulls her hand away and he takes a shuddering breath. He passes his hand across his face and Louise pretends not to realise that he’s probably wiping away tears. She wonders why his sisters – Allison and one other? – haven’t hugged him. He’s been back for a week and he’s acting like this is the first affection he’s received since before he left.

“How much do I owe you?”

“For the coffee or the therapy session?” Louise jokes.

He immediately stiffens, “I shouldn’t have said all that.”

“But you did.”

“But I did,” he echoes.

“Look, man,” Louise notices that he responds better to being called that rather than ‘kid’, “I’ve known you for all of a month and I can already tell that you needed to tell that to someone.”

He opens his mouth but Louise hurriedly continues, cutting him off, “I don’t know why you can’t talk to your sister or your parents or any of your friends but you can’t. That’s an assessment you made and it’s one that you’re following through on but you still needed to tell someone,” Louise throws her arms out to the side, “and that’s me.”

He opens his mouth again before shutting it and squinting slightly, as if in thought.

“You remind me of Delores.”

“Who?” Louise asks, lost.

He gestures at her face, “Your face is a bit like Dolores’, but you’re alive.”

“What the _hell_ are you on about?”

He cracks a tired grin, “While I was overseas, my only companion was a mannequin whom I named Delores. She couldn’t talk, not really, but she functioned as something to talk at, like a rubber duck.”

“The IT dudes’ rubber duck?”

“Exactly.”

“So, you’re telling me you’re being as open as you are because I remind you of a mannequin that you talked to when you were alone?”

His smile spreads into something sharp, “Precisely.”

Louise shrugs helplessly, “You remind me of my sister. She was younger than me and we never got along so I missed out on her growing up and being there for her.”

They let the silence settle between them.

Louise starts laughing. “This is so weird,” she forces out between cackles.

“The therapy duo: the mannequin and the lost opportunity,” he quips.

Louise cackles louder and he seems like he’s about to join in when looks past her head to the clock on the wall and stiffens.

“Oh shit, I’m late,” he exclaims.

Louise watches as he gulps down the rest of the coffee, which is probably cold by now, slaps a note on the counter and starts walking to the door. As he does, Skinny Cap looks up and waggles her finger in a small wave and he nods back before pushing open the door.

“Have I scared you off?” Louise calls out before he can walk out, hating how, just like the previous time he left she feels off-balance and worried that he won’t come bac. He pauses at the threshold.

“No. Have I scared you off?”

“Nope,” Louise pops, “And even if you did, I work here. Where am I going to go?”

It’s unfortunate, Louise considers, that the door closing shut behind him cuts off his laughter. He doesn’t seem like he laughs enough.

She stares out after him even as he walks out of sight. Louise almost jumps when she hears the _thunk_ of a mug being put on a counter and looks up in surprise as Skinny Cap leans against the counter. Her eyes, a deep green, are watching her with curiosity.

Louise almost gulps, “Thanks for bringing that over, I could’ve grabbed that myself.”

“He doesn’t look like your brother,” Skinny Cap muses, “And I remember you telling me that you only had a younger sister. A cousin, perhaps?”

Louise pales, this is exactly what she’d been frightened of.

“He’s just a customer. I don’t even know his name.”

Skinny Cap hums noncommittally, “I can’t deny that it’s odd, but I’d just like to say thank you.”

“Thank you?” Louise repeats in shock.

Skinny Cap chuckles. Louise’s co-worker Stella had once whispered in Louise’s ear that she thought that Skinny Cap was fae and Louise had always accepted it as one of those weird internet things but as she watches the woman before her with her aristocratic face and glimmering eyes, almost ageless in nature, she can’t help but agree that there’s something almost ethereal about her.

Skinny Cap leans in and Louise flushes.

“I’ve met him, too,” she whispers into Louise’s ear, almost as if confessing a secret.

“Huh?” Louise asks, dumbly.

“I go to the library to do research for my papers and books. He’s there a lot of the time and we share a table.”

“How long have you known him?”

Skinny Cap smiles, pale pink lips curving into something beautiful, “I first shared a table with him a couple of months or so ago. I was actually the one to recommend this store to him. He was complaining about the bad coffee in this city and I am _ever_ so fond of the coffee here.”

Louise feels herself flush even darker, “Oh, you speak to him much?”

“Of course, we have much in common,” her smile broadens into something more mischievous as she says, “We both feel as if we’re out of time.”

Well, Louise has no idea how to unpack that. She takes in the woman again with her long green dress and sandals. A computer bag over one shoulder and a pendant around her neck. There’s something in the way that she watches the world that is reminiscent of the boy, something aged and wisened. Skinny Cap reaches out a delicate hand and pats Louise on the back of her hand.

“I love talking to him and I must thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“I have to confess that part of the reason I told him to come here was because of you. You’re different, my dear Louise. I knew that if anyone could help him it would be you. You’d probably be able to help his whole family even,” she muses.

“You think I can help him?” Louise asks.

The smile on her face turns comforting, “Of course. He needs someone on the outside to help him. I love the boy dearly, what a darling, but I can’t play the same role in his life that you can.”

She pats Louise’s hand twice more before drawing away, “So, you’ll help him emotionally and I’ll support him in the more intellectual sense.”

Skinny cap pulls a notebook out of a pocket in her dress and Louise is immediately jealous; none of her dresses have pockets, let alone pockets deep enough for a notebook. The woman opens it up to a page, puts it down on the table, and gestures for Louise to look.

On the page is a mixture of notes and equations. While the notes are mainly written in a deep purple pen and the equations in a black pen, there is overlap where the black pen has added comments to the notes and the purple pen has corrected parts of the equations.

“We’re working towards something big,” Skinny Cap says, pulling the notebook towards her after a minute or so and snaps it shut, sliding it back into her pocket.

Louise has no idea what’s going on between the boy and this woman and she’s frankly somewhat concerned that apparently he’s hanging around fully grown women instead of kids his own age. As if reading her thoughts, Skinny Cap says, “He needs us. We’re the only ones who treat him like an equal, not a child. Even his siblings don’t treat him as he needs to be treated.”

“All I’m saying is, keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be helping him more than I ever could.”

It’s comforting, Louise realises, that someone has noticed her pet project in the early stages and is encouraging her. If she can help this little boy become a nicer person maybe she can even fix her relationship with her sister.

“Thank you,” Louise stammers, “And you, too. For being there for him.”

The woman hasn’t said much but Louise can tell how attached she is to him. 

“I just hope it’s enough,” Skinny Cap confesses, gaze suddenly distant.

Struck by confidence, Louise says, “We can work together on this, okay?”

Skinny Cap mouth forms a little ‘o’ and she laughs after a minute. It’s a beautiful sound, like tinkling bells and her hair, long and red, falls over her shoulders as she leans her head down, almost bashfully.

“Of course, we’ll look after him.”

“Like older sisters?” Louise adds, subtly trying to clarify that she is not disgusting freak who would think about a child in another way.

“Like the older sisters he should have.”

There’s something bitter in her voice and Louise just thinks that it confirms that the distance between the boy and his siblings isn’t purely his fault.

Skinny Cap claps her hand lightly together and declares, “Well, I should be off, thanks for another wonderful coffee.”

Louise smiles her customer service and assures her, “It was nothing, thanks for coming.”

“I’ll always come, the coffee here is just too good to deny myself.”

Louise nods along and hopes that it’s true for the boy as well. Even though he’s become somewhat of a regular, Louise still fears that one day he may simply stop coming in. For now though, she comforts herself with the knowledge this woman has imparted and hopes that he’ll keep coming at least until he settles in and goes back to school. As petty as it is, Louise almost wishes that he won’t go back to a normal life and that he’ll just keep coming to visit. She’ll miss him if he leaves.

 

*

 

He stumbles in the next morning even more tired than the previous and Louise doesn’t even bother greeting him. Instead, she slips into the staffroom and grabs the mug she leaves for the long shifts. It’s a monster of a thing, easily twice the size of any of the mugs they offer out the front and a garish shade of purple. When she comes back, he’s slumped over the counter, his face pillowed on his arms, and his eyes shut. He opens them slowly as she thumps the mug down in front of him, full of coffee.

“Holy fuck,” he mutters, “this thing’s massive.”

“I know, that’s why I bought it,” Louise laughs.

‘It’s yours?”

Louise winces, he’s a smart kid and for him to not to immediately pencil on that the mug with googly eyes was not one they usually serve to customers is concerning.

“You looked like you needed it,” she sends an appraising look in his direction.

He groans and sits back up straight, dragging a hand across his face. His shoulders are slumped like he can’t even manage the usual amount of tension running through his body.

“I was working on some calculations last night and forgot to sleep.”

_God, what a nerd._

He frowns, “And the night before that, too.”

Louise raises an eyebrow, “Drink that and go the fuck home and sleep.”

Then again, she hadn’t made it decaf and it had at least six shots in it. _Whoops_. He mumbles something incoherent and Louise is about to keep pushing him to leave when the bell dingles again and she looks up.

There’s a woman striding confidently towards the counter, something familiar in her step. Her hair, curled delicately around her face in a pale shade of white-grey contrasts deeply with her burgundy dress. She smiles blandly at Louise, red lips splitting across a pale face, contorting the faint scar that cuts across her lower cheek. In her left hand is a large black briefcase that looks like it weighs a tonne.

She delicately places herself on the stool, puts the briefcase on the stool to her right, and turns to the boy, “Fancy seeing you here.”

He scowls at her, “Like you specifically didn’t decide to come when I’m particularly weak.”

She frowns a bit and, almost playfully, tells him, “With the way you are at the moment, you’re always particularly weak.”

He takes a large gulp of his coffee and looks as if he wishes it was something stronger.

“What do you want?”

His voice is harsh, harsher than his usual levels of irritation. Louise sends a quick look at the telephone hanging off the wall just a few feet away, wondering whether she needs to call someone. For, as odd as the boy is, there’s something just plain disconcerting about this woman.

“Relax, I’m not here to fight with you. On the contrary, I’m here to congratulate you.”

“Oh?” The boy says, not relaxing at all.

“My superiors have recognised that no matter what our organisation does, you’ll always find a way to stop us so it’s just easier for us to cut our losses and let you have the win.”

Louise was confused, completely and thoroughly confused. The boy seemed to understand what was going and remained unimpressed.

“Dot’s been reassigned – you remember Dot – and her folders about the apocalypse archived. You can have a look at them if you like.” She offers as if she’s offered him billions of dollars and not some presumably musty files.

“So, just to clarify, the apocalypse has been averted. There is, however, a catch –”

“Of course there is.”

“My superiors,” she continues as if she hadn’t been interrupted, “Require something from you. We can’t let you have this without you giving us something in return.”

“What do they want?”

His body expression is perfectly loose and his face an amenable mask, but his hands, clasped around his mug, are trembling. One finger begins tapping against the far side of the mug so the newcomer can’t see it. He blinks rapidly and Louise is reminded how tired he looked. If the situation is as bad as it seems, he needs to stay perfectly alert. Silently, so as not to impact their conversations too much, Louise tops up his mug.

Despite the way she inches forward and quickly fills it up before retreating, they both turn to look at her. The woman with a cold look of disinterest and the boy with curiosity mixed with apprehension. Louise tries not to shrink in on herself. She must do a pretty bad job of it as the boy tries to send her an encouraging smile. There’s too much teeth and he's nearly radiating tension.

“Would you care for a drink?” Louise asks the woman and her face twists into something predatory.

“Just a green tea,” she dismisses.

Louise takes a look at the boy and raises an eyebrow in question, only turning to leave when he nods. In the kitchen, she puts the kettle on and gets the teabag ready in a takeaway cup, bouncing anxiously. The woman didn’t look like much. She was beautiful in the cold way of a model or a governess in the movies, ruined only by the scar on her face. She didn’t look particularly strong or like she was carrying any weapons but despite this, Louise couldn’t help the sharp fear that ran through her. She shouldn’t have left him alone. The kettle suddenly screeches and she jumps.

When she pushes the kitchen door open, she sees the two of them sitting together and they look familiar with each other, almost comfortable. _She’s old enough to be his mother,_ Louise supposes. The conversation, though still too quiet to be heard flows easily between them, with a cadence like bantering with an old friend. But the smile on the woman's face is still predatory and vicious, so maybe not banter.

As Louise puts down the tea, she sees the woman place an envelope on the counter between the pair of them; she must have pulled it out of her briefcase. The envelope is large, with a gold trim along the edge of paper that’s a shade of red that matches her lips. A single word is scrawled along the front in large, sloping writing: _Five._

“So,” the woman says conclusively, “If you scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours. Work as a contractor and we’ll allow the apocalypse to be stopped. The specifics are in the folder,” She shrugs and makes a dismissive hand gesture, “Read it and we can iron out the details at the meeting.”

“Meeting?” He asks in a weak voice.

“My superiors want to talk to you, to explain things clearly themselves. I’m just the messenger.”

She stands up with a flourish and leans forward to look the boy in the eye, “I look forward to seeing you later, Five.”

Did she just call him Five?

He grimaces at her and turns away to stare into his mug; a clear dismissal and she smiles indulgently, dropping a lolly on the counter in front of him before sweeping out of the store. Without so much as taking a sip of her tea. Louise looks away from the woman for a split second and when she turns back, she’s gone without a trace. There hadn’t been enough time for her to walk out of view either. Louise pushes the thought back and instead focuses on the boy.

As bad as he had looked when he walked in this morning, tired and haggard, he looks even worse now with more tension running through him than the first day he’d come to the store. For lack of a better thing, she asks him the first thing that comes to mind.

“So, why does the envelope say ‘five’?”

He looks up at her, an almost irritated look in his eye and, where any day she herself would have found herself annoyed to be at the end of that arrogant look in his eye, today it only fills her with relief as he begins to act more like himself.

His face scrunches up like he’s thinking of something awful, “It’s a nickname.”

“Really?” Louise is incredulous, do kids actually give each other such dumb nicknames? The woman had called him Five though, so it wasn’t just a friends thing. At least Louise didn’t think they were friends.

“Yes.”

Despite the distraction, his eyes are downcast and his finger is tracing his ‘nickname’ on the envelope.

“My friends called me Susanna.”

“… What the fuck?”

Louise laughs.

“It still makes more sense than Five.”

“No, it doesn’t. I was called Five because I was the fifth child my father got.”

“Got?” There’s something off about the phrasing that grates.

The boy – Five – rolled his eyes, “We’re adopted.”

“And you have four other siblings?”

“Six actually.”

Louise feels faint, she could barely stand having just her sister most days. To have six other siblings sounded like hell. He had mentioned having two sisters, Allison and some unnamed author. Other than that though, he gave no indication that he had siblings, let alone six of them. It explained a lot, though. Maybe his whole arrogant act was just a cry for attention as a result of middle child syndrome. Louise would hate to meet the rest of his siblings if that were the case; five middle children, _yikes_.

“You’ve never mentioned them,” Louise ventures.

He purses his lips and his eyes flicker heavenward, like he’s asking for patience. Just as Louise is about to try and take it back, he pulls out a ten from his pocket and puts it down on the counter next to the mug and turns to leave. As he slides off his seat, he grabs the lolly the woman had left behind, unwraps it and pops it in his mouth, before walking away from Louise.

Louise opens her mouth, to say something to ameliorate the situation but the realisation that all of their interactions seem to end this way stops her from doing so. She says nothing and the door slammed behind him definitively and the bell was loud in the silence.

 

*

 

The afternoon rush comes and goes with Louise having to deal with twelve whole customers. The students from the local university begin trickling in after with their laptops and study sessions and payments in loose change. It was maybe twenty minutes after the rush when the woman comes. Louise nearly doesn’t notice when she comes in, the bell barely chiming as she slips in and slowly closes the door behind her. She shuffles across to the counter and Louise greets her.

She’s rather plain looking with average brown hair of an average length and average eyes. She was pretty enough but she just seemed lacking in some way that would set her out from a crowd. It didn’t help that she didn’t look particularly confident in herself with her plain grey jumper and black jeans. When she opens her mouth to talk, her voice is so quiet Louise can barely hear it over the quiet chattering of the other customers. Despite having worked in the shop for years and perfected her work façade, the woman must be able to tell that she didn’t hear because she passively repeats herself, with a little bit more volume.

“I was just wondering if you did decaf,” she says, fiddling with the sleeves of her top nervously.

“We sure do,” Louise makes an effort to tone down her customer service peppiness, trying not to scare her off or make her any more uncomfortable than she already is.

“Great,” she smiles slightly, “Just a decaf black coffee, please.”

As she began working on the coffee, Louise takes note of the lack of customers waiting to place their order.

“So, decaf? It’s not that late in the afternoon.”

The woman smiles again, a bit more loosely this time, with the slightest flash of teeth.

“It’s for my brother, he hasn’t been sleeping lately. He usually makes a coffee for himself in the afternoon to get him through the night and since I was coming over to talk to him, I thought I might pick up one for him.”

It’s oddly thoughtful and when Louise looks at her again, she can tell that the woman, whoever she is, is the sort to pay attention to the minor details; it’s in the way she watches Louise. Louise shuffles uncomfortably, adjusting the sleeves of her work shirt and conscious of the coffee grains covering her hands.

“I’d say that’s sweet and I wish my sister was that thoughtful but you’re tricking him, aren’t you? Giving him decaf so he sleeps?”

The woman smiles even more and nods. Louise slides the finished coffee over to the woman who puts down the coins and takes it in her left hand. It’s delicate with long fingers and closely trimmed nails.

“I’ll let you know if it works,” the woman says and leaves with the same amount of effort to not make an impact as she did when she came in.

Despite this, Louise thinks of her that night as she’s finishing her shift and wishes she’d asked her name.

 

*

 

When the bell rings the next morning, Louise looks up expecting the boy and is immediately disappointed when she doesn’t see his short figure cutting across the store to his customary stool. Worry fills her as she remembers the woman with her pale hair, dark lips and sinister envelope. Surprise replaces her worry as she takes in the woman from the previous day walk in with another woman.

The woman from the previous day is wearing jeans again but this time with a blue jumper and she looks almost waiflike next to the tall woman beside her. Where yesterday’s woman seemed to be trying to hide her presence, her new friend commanded attention with her beautiful features and curly blonde hair. She looks familiar and Louise puzzles over where she saw her for a moment before giving up, knowing it would come to her eventually.

“Morning. Did the decaf work?” Louise asks and the blonde woman raises a perfect eyebrow and up close Louise can see her roots coming through. It looks nowhere near as bad on this woman as it would on Louise.

The brown-haired woman smiles, “Yeah, when we left this morning he was still asleep.”

She turns to her friend and says, “I gave Five a decaf coffee last night.”

Five? Like the same Five who hadn’t turned up this morning and who hadn’t been sleeping much lately? Louise looks at the women but neither of them look old enough to be his mother. Maybe they’re those siblings he was talking about but the age gap seems really large with the boy looking barely into puberty and the women being well and truly adults. Very, very attractive adults. Louise is too single for this sort of shit this early in the morning.

The decaf lady seems apprehensive, worried about how her friend – friend? – will react but the blonde woman just asks, “Because he kept staying up all night to work on his equations?”

Her woman is oddly raspy and not at all what Louise had expected from her. When the woman confirms with a quiet “yeah”, the blonde woman smiles warmly at her, “Five has been avoiding sleep for too long, it was a smart move, Vanya.”

_Oh, the woman’s name is Vanya. How pretty_ , Louise thinks before realising that the woman had said Five’s name again. _Oh to hell with it, it couldn’t possibly be that common a nickname._

“You two know Five?”

They both turn their gaze to Louise like they’d forgotten she was there. The tall woman purses her lips and casts a critical eye at Louise.

Panicking Louise waves her hand around where his head comes up to, “About this tall, kind of an asshole, always really tired, only owns a school uniform?”

Vanya nods cautiously and says, “He’s our brother.”

_Well that makes sense_ , Louise thinks and is grateful that there’s someone looking out for the boy because there was only so much Louise could do from the coffeeshop.

Turning to the other woman, she asks, “Are you Allison?”

It’s possible that he has other sisters but looking at the woman makes Louise think that her name is probably Allison. It fits and the sense of recognition grows stronger but Louise still can’t put her finger on where she knows the woman from. The blonde woman smiles at her, a television perfect smile with pearly white teeth and a slight head tilt to make it look all the sweeter. _Wow, she really is stunning._

“Five’s mentioned me?”

Her voice is cynical and Louise remembers how the boy had mentioned how his siblings had difficulties putting up with him. He was by no way a saint but Louise had never thought he was as much of an asshole as he made himself out to be. Maybe it was a thing of public personas and he only pretended to be nice to her but the boy didn’t seem to be that kind of person.

Like Louise’s sister, the boy seemed to be the sort of person who would hate people who only pretended to be nice. In one of her famous rants, Louise’s sister had said something about at least having the decency to be a jerk to her face. _No, that wouldn’t be the reason; the boy wouldn’t have deceived her like that._ Louise had no doubt the boy could put on a believable act and that he would be a great actor but he’d never bother unless he had to.

But if it wasn’t a matter of him being more of an asshole than he let on, and if he acted with his siblings as he did with Louise, then it’s possible that it’s just a negative feedback loop. Half of the reason Louise and her sister never got along was because her sister would always say something that was just a little too abrasive and Louise would misunderstand and respond in kind. Louise could easily see how his curt words and distant body language could be misunderstood as something crueller and more malicious. His siblings would respond with nasty words and he would get defensive and it would all just devolve from there. The more Louise thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

But, looking at the two women before her, Louise can’t possibly imagine them escalating a situation like that and getting mad at the boy; they seem too kind. He did say he had five other siblings and the women before him were comparatively old.

They would have been nearly old enough to move out when he was born and they certainly were when he became old enough to pick up asshole tendencies. The difference in age could mean that their relationship with the boy and their perception of him is based more off what the other siblings who may be closer in age to the boy would say about him. Maybe they just didn’t see him often enough to pick up on the sort of person he is and they just hadn’t learnt how to read his cues. Louise is fully aware that if her sister had turned out even a modicum nicer, she wouldn’t be able to read the boy as well as she did. She’d probably have written him off as another pretentious child who needed more parental supervision and a firm hand.

But her sister was the blunt woman that she was, and Louise could see how he wasn’t actually all that bad. He just needed to have friends to help him learn how to actually talk to people, and if he learnt from her when he came for mid-morning coffees then Louise could only feel grateful that she could help guide someone to be a better person.

It had concerned her at first, how attached she became to the peculiar boy with his black coffees and silly blazer. Like a young cousin or one of the students who you helped acclimate to your new school, Louise felt protective of the boy. _She’d help him with his siblings_ , Louise decides _, the way she wished someone had helped her with her sister._

“He’s not a very open person,” Louise confides, “But he did mention a sister called Allison and a sister who wrote a book.”

At the first part of the sentence, Allison had brightened but when Louise mentioned the author, her facial expression quickly bitters. Next to her, Vanya winces and Louise looks between the two of them.

“What did I say?”

“Oh, it’s not you,” Vanya assures, “I wrote the book and I said some pretty nasty things in it about my family.”

She cast a nervous look at her sister but Allison places a comforting hand on her shoulder and says, “It was all true. You just showed the real us and we weren’t ready to face the truth of the sort of people we’d become or were.”

This seems like a problem that had been left untouched for a long time and Louise is sure that airing things out here wasn’t the best place or time to do so.

“He told me that he read it hundreds of times while he was overseas,” she interjects before they can get stuck into this line of thought.

They stare blankly at her.

“Hundreds of times,” Vanya echoes in disbelief.

“Overseas?” Allison asks.

Louise looks them over again and while she’s distracted them from the previous conversation, the look on Allison’s face promises more questions. She’s willing to talk about the boy with his sisters if it’ll help the boy or his family but she doesn’t want to betray the tentative trust he’s put in her by sharing everything she’s heard from him.

“Oh dear, I’ve forgotten to take your orders. What can I get for you?” Louise quickly asks.

Allison frowns like she’s caught onto Louise’s segue but she says after a contemplative perusal of the menu, “Caramel latte, please.”

Louise nods and turns to Vanya.

“Uh, just a regular latte for me,” she stammers.

“To have here or take away?”

“Have here, please,” Allison says, putting down the money.

As Louise starts making their coffees, the two women walk to a pair of armchairs by the window and begin conversing quietly. While she can’t hear anything, she can only assume that she’s one of the topics as, when she draws near to bring them their coffees, they fall silent, only talking again when she’s on the other side of the counter again. The boy would hate them doing that. Louise wonders if he’s still asleep.

It’s maybe half an hour later when Allison brings both mugs up to Louise. They’re nice mugs, a pale cream with baby blue on the inside, nothing like the purple monstrosity Louise keeps out the back for long shifts.  She puts them down on the counter with a sort of care Louise doesn’t usually see from customers and she thanks her.

“I could’ve grabbed them myself,” Louise says.

“Oh no, there was no need for you to bother.”

Allison casts a furtive glance over her shoulder to where Vanya is still sitting, a mobile phone in her hand.

“I actually wanted to ask you about Five.”

“What about him?” Louise ventures.

Allison smiles unthreateningly, “Just some questions about what he’s said to you.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t feel very comfortable answering your questions, I don’t think.”

“Why not?” Allison’s brows furrows.

Louise sends her a tight smile, “I don’t want to betray his trust.”

“I’m his sister!” she sounds incredulous.

“And yet you think that I know things about him that you don’t. What does that say about the sort of sister you are?” Louise bites out.

Her eyebrows shoot up and her mouth drops open. She looks furious. _Shit_. It was easy to forget that the one thing she and her sister had in common was a quick temper. Allison gapes for a minute before taking a deep breath.

“I heard a rumour –” She starts but is cut off by Vanya’s quiet voice.

“Allison!” She reprimands and Allison turns to her with anger written in her before some sort of realisation occurs. Her shoulders hunch in and her face drops.

“Oh God,” she whispers under her breath, “Not again.”

Guilt. She hadn’t seen the family resemblance before but as Allison looks at her hands, almost on the verge of tears, Louise can see how the woman could be related to the boy. Where she had been smooth words and a pretty face, he had been scowls and sharp words. But as she began to look more and more upset it was easy to see that they were family.

She whirls around and grabs Louise’s hands.

“I am so, so sorry,” she says, looking earnestly into Louise’s eyes.

“Uh, okay?”

Louise’s eyes cut to Vanya who shrugs and shakes her head subtly. Not something for her to get involved in then _. And who said Louise didn’t know where other people’s boundaries lay?_ Because she was letting whatever was happening now drop as fast as she could.

As if realising that she was holding hands with a complete stranger, Allison drops her hands suddenly and backs away. Vanya slides forwards just a bit, angling herself between Allison and Louise. It’s protective but still such a small movement that Louise wouldn’t have been able to tell if she hadn’t been paying attention.

“We’d better get going,” Vanya said, and grabs Allison’s hand, pulling her to the door.

“See you next time,” Louise helplessly calls out after them.

If all of the family is as fucked up as Allison is, then she might end up looking after the whole family. _What a joke._ Louise almost misses yesterday, when, as far as she knew, the boy was the only person who needed help. Louise sighs and settles in for the next … three hours of her shift, according the clock. She can’t wait till she’s finished.

 

*

 

It was barely 10 in the morning and the store is already full. With all the seats full and at least ten people in queue, Louise was cursing the other guy who worked Saturday morning for being late. He’d meant to show up half an hour ago but apparently the trains were delayed. She doesn’t know if it’s a load of shit or not but at this point in time, she doesn’t even care. She just wants someone else to help out. Even with her manager, Imogen, working with her, she’s still feeling so horribly frantic.

_One-and-a-half pay_ , Louise tells herself. _Do it for the extra money_. She’s just finished taking orders and has walked out to collect mugs and clean tables when the bell dings and the boy walks in. Louise, even as busy as she is, looks over him critically. He looks no thinner than usual but at least the ever-present bags under his eyes have lessened and there’s a light flush in his cheeks.

As he walks into the store, his eyes widen as he takes in the busy state and all the customers. He halts suddenly and though he starts moving again, he’d stood still long enough for nearby customers to notice and shoot him confused looks. Louise can almost imagine how they’d think of him as the asshole who blocked off the entrance to the shop for no reason.

He walks forwards through the store, navigating through the less crowded areas to get to the counter where Imogen is washing dirty mugs. His pace is slow and uneven, and even from where Louise is standing on the other side of the room, she can see the way he trembles.

As he’s walking behind a group of students, the one he’s passing behind leans back suddenly and the boy flinches sharply as the customer’s head knocks against his arm. The trembling gets worse and his movement is faster and more panicked as he ignores the apology and curious glance from the table. He doesn’t look good and Louise quickly grabs a few more mugs and plates before making her way to the counter.

Not even bothering to take them to the sink on the other side of the counter, Louise puts her load down near where her boss is standing and with an absent, “be back in a min,” she walks towards where the boy is unsteadily shuffling to the till. He pauses for a moment, swaying and Louise almost sprints to his side.

Instead, she comes up to him, slowly and all the while making sure that he’s aware of her of the approach. He doesn’t look up at her but as she made her way towards him Louise notices the way his face moves to follow her shoes as she approaches. It’s when she’s standing a little over a metre away that he looks up and makes eye-contact with her.

In the split-second that he looks at her, Louise takes in the unusual shininess of his eyes and the faint sheen of sweat lining his face before his eyes, wide and dark, look into hers and he imperceptibly relaxes as he takes in her presence.

Louise opens her mouth to ask if he’s alright but before she manages to, she hears a loud crash as someone drops a plate and it shatters across the floor. Immediately, his hands shoot up to cover his ears and he lets out a quiet sound that can only be described as a sob and he sinks to the ground. Louise half-follows him down, leaning down slightly, hands outstretched to touch him but her eyes on where she thinks she heard the plate drop.

_Shit, she doesn’t have time for this_. She can’t handle the brunch rush while down one man while a child has a breakdown on the floor. Half the store is looking at where was plate was dropped by as the seconds tick past, more and more people notice the real MVP of disasters, sitting right before Louise almost rocking back and forward with his hands firmly over his ears.

She’s so distracted, trying to figure out what to do that she almost doesn’t notice when Imogen walks up beside her and gently but firmly tells her, “Take the boy to the back. He doesn’t need the whole world watching this.”

“But the shop,” Louise stammers, looking up at her.

Imogen shakes her head, “Darryl just arrived.”

Louise looks around and she sees Darryl hurriedly shrugging off his coat as he walks through the store.

“We can handle this without you, the rush is dying down anyway,” Imogen continues,  “Just get him to the staffroom.”

“Why me?” Louise asks even though she saw the trust in his eyes when he saw her standing before him.

Imogen frowns at her, “He seems to trust you and you did volunteer work at one of those teen support groups, didn’t you?”

It’s true, she’d put it on her resume when applying for the job here and everything. Louise just hadn’t added that although she’d spent hours reaching ways to help before her first day, she’d been assigned to admin work and never actually got to participate in the group sessions. For all the research she’d conducted, it had still been a few years and she’d never actually used it. _Well, it wasn’t like she had any other option._

Louise nods firmly. She can hear how the store has quietened down, hushed whispering replacing relaxed chatter, and when she looks up all she can see is curious faces watching her and the boy. _What a bunch of assholes._

“Hey …” Louise trails off. She’d been about to call the boy ‘kid’ but she knows how much he doesn’t like that. Up until this point, she’d managed to avoid calling him by his nickname, not sure whether Louise was considered close enough to use it or not. It’s not like she has any other option at the moment.

“Hey, Five,” Louise starts again, making an effort to make her voice clear and soft. He snaps to attention and his face tilts up to look at her. Despite the engagement that his actions imply, his gaze is still distant.

“I’m not going to touch you but I think that you should follow me to the staffroom. Can you do that?”

She waits patiently, as he continues trembling. After a few moments he starts pulling himself up onto shaky legs. Louise moves around him and starts moving towards the staffroom, listening for the scuffling of his school shoes on the floors behind her. They go down the short corridor and turn left into the staffroom.  She shuts the door behind them when the boy comes in.

It’s not very big, with a series of lockers for employees on one wall and a single couch pushed against the other. There’s a small table in the middle with three chairs and she pulls one out for herself, twists it to face the couch and sits down.

“Sit on the couch.”

He follows her instructions obediently and collapses into the soft cushions. As he relaxes into the softness, his eyes close and the lines twisting his face loosen. His hands, without the noisiness of the store, fall from his ears and he wraps his arms tightly around himself in a facsimile of a hug.

Louise sighs, now that she’s gotten him in here, she has no idea what to do. She bets that Skinny Cap would know what to do.  So, she does what she always does when she doesn’t know what to do and starts talking.

“I spoke to my sister yesterday,” Louise starts.

The boy doesn’t so much as look at her.

“I’ve spoken about her to you a few times now but I don’t think I’ve been very open about the situation. She’s my sister and I’ll always love her but she’s not a person that I like at all. She’s rude and aggressive and she’s not good at caring about people and she always picks fights.”

Louise sighs and starts flexing her hands, opening them and shutting them slowly.

“We’d always fight, and, looking back it wasn’t always her fault. When we were teenagers, we had this one really dumb fight about something, I don’t remember what but then we never really spoke again afterwards. I told her I hated her in the heat of things and it wasn’t something I ever took back. I usually never lie, life’s just easier when you don’t. But I lied that time and I don’t think my sister realised that, for once, I wasn’t telling the truth.”

She notices he’s tilted his face to watch her hands, eyes tracking the opening and shutting movement. He blinks slowly and doesn’t acknowledge her but he’s looking better than before.

“You might think that I’ve just been helping you all this time but I was serious when I told you that you remind me of my sister. Getting to know you and getting to understand your tics and the way you work, it’s helped me to understand my sister. After talking to you, I can look back at my interactions with my sister and be like ‘oh, so that’s how I misread her body language and this is what she was trying to say.’ It’s really helped.”

Louise pauses, collecting her thoughts and trying to figure out where to continue on from there. In the silence of the room, his heavy breathing is all she can hear. It’s uneven and rapid and Louise is sure his heart is beating just as quickly.

“Your sisters came in yesterday. Vanya and Allison.”

At their names, his head shoots up and he sends her a confused look.

“Yeah, it was weird,” Louise laughs quietly, “But it gave me the push I needed and I called my sister that night. I invited her over for dinner and apologised to her.”

He shuffles against the couch, weakly trying to push himself into a sitting position and Louise automatically grabs his shoulder to help. He flinches out of her grasp and Louise immediately pulls back.

She's not sure what she's done wrong. She'd usually assume that the touch aversion would be as a result of whatever he's going through at the moment, but she knows the boy and she knows he avoids touch despite how much he enjoyed it. It hits her after a moment.

“Oh, so that’s what it is. All that time overseas when you were lonely. I’d already figured out about the lack of contact; you wouldn’t be used to it, would you? Well, I’m sorry, I didn’t think that through,” Louise sincerely says.

“What happened in the store just then though … That was because there were too many people, right? You’re used to living alone and you come back and while there are more people, the store is usually empty and you only go places during the day when it’s least busy. Coming in on a Saturday like this must be really awful.”

He scowls at her and whispers a harsh, “Shut up.”

Louise holds her hands up in surrender and wisely changes the topic.

“So, I invited my sister over and holy moly, she’s just like you. Well, not quite. She’s more of a blunt asshole while you’re a socially inept asshole. No offense.”

His glare deepens and the familiarity of it restores some sort of internal balance that Louise had lost.

“She comes over and we talk. It was that simple,” Louise lets out an incredulous laugh, “Once I figured out how to read her body language and how to read between the lines it was so much easier to get along with her.”

She slumps in her chair, tipping her head back to look at the ceiling, “She’s asked me to come over for dinner on Tuesday. Her husband’s out for some work thing and she wants me to try some new recipe she found online.”

Louise sighs, “I feel happier now that we’ve started reconnecting and I never even realised how miserable I was. It’s no wonder you’re so grouchy.”

She falls silent for a few minutes, watching the seconds tick by on the clock on the wall. She absently wonders if she’s still going to get paid for this.  She decides that she doesn’t care.

The clock has just struck twelve when he manages to sit up. Louise snaps to attention and watches as he stares down at his hands, primly placed in his lap.

“Can I sit next to you?” Louise asks, unsure whether he’ll feel better with her sitting beside him or not.

He ponders on it for a moment or two before hesitantly nodding. She sits next to him and, remembering how she used to do this with her sister when they were still in primary school, wraps an arm around his shoulders. Just like the last time she touched him, he stiffens for a moment before slumping into her side. Her hand tightens around his shoulder. Her brain switches off as she stares at the other wall, drifting, when he speaks.

“You used my name.”

Louise is confused, he’d never told her his name, she only knew his nickname.

“You mean Five?”

He nods against her side and she rubs his arm comfortingly.

“Sorry, I wasn’t sure how else to get your attention.”

“It’s fine, you can call me Five.”

Louise smiles, it feels like she’s achieved something major.

“You can call me Louise, then.”

“What?”

“I know that my name is on the tag and everything but I’ve never introduced myself to you, so you can call me Louise.”

He hums and she feels the reverberations against her stomach. It’s weird but not unpleasant.

“The lady from the library is called Caroline.”

“Really?” 

There’s an undercurrent of disgust in Louise’s voice that she can’t disguise. Not that Caroline’s a bad name but for a woman like Skinny Cap she expected something more unique and mystical. Not Caroline.

He lets out a tired huff of a laugh, “Her real name is much harder to pronounce and she prefers something less pretentious. Thus, Caroline.”

“One of my co-workers thought she was a fairy or something and the more I hear about her, the more true I think it is.”

He shakes his head, “Oh no, Caroline is just like me.”

“What a pretentious little shit who enjoys maths so much he loses sleep over it?”

He lightly hits her stomach.

 They pass a few minutes in comfortable silence before Louise sighs and says, “I’d better get back to work, are you okay now?”

“Yeah,” he says after a minute.

“It was the people wasn’t it?”

His silence is more than enough as an answer. But he still says, “I’ve been in crowds like this after I got back but only when I was working, you know? Never when I was just relaxing and I wasn’t there to achieve something. It was unexpected.”

“Well, now you know what to expect in the future.”

She doesn’t even need to look at him to know the expression on his face. He pulls away from her with a huff and Louise forces herself to stand up. She turns to face him, staring at him as he seemingly tries to become one with the couch.

“I’m going back to work now, unless you need anything?”

He shakes his head.

“Cool, you’re free to stay here if you want. You can leave whenever.”

He nods and she nods back. Unable to help herself, she quickly leans in and ruffles his hair before darting away. He squawks in indignation and Louise almost cackles at it as she goes back to the front of the store.

Later, Imogen leaves the shop, giving Louise a loose hug and a proud smile but the boy – Five – had left much more quietly. In fact, Louise hadn’t even noticed that he had left until she went to check in on him and noticed that the staffroom was empty.  It was odd but Louise didn’t pay it much mind.

 

*

 

It's just after opening time on Monday morning that Louise sees Five cautiously pop his head into the store. It's only after seeing the lack of customers that he comes fully inside, walking up to his stool with his usual amount of confidence. By the time he's sitting on his stool, Louise has already started making his usual coffee, not even bothering to greet him.

"On Saturday..." He starts but trails off. Louise looks up from the coffee machine and he's staring at his hands intently, looking small. She slides the finished coffee over to him and pats him on the shoulder twice. He tenses but doesn't flinch or pull away. She lets her hand linger on his shoulder for a few moments before pulling away and he looks up at her. She grins back.

"It's alright."

She would have tried using this as an opportunity to get him to open up and use his words but she's well aware that it's the little steps that matter. She's just grateful he came back. Although she'd known that he wouldn't have come back on the weekend after Saturday, it hadn't stopped Louise from expecting him to come in every time the bell rang all throughout Sunday.

"I'm glad you came back," She says to him and starts cleaning around the grinder.

He stays silent and Louise waits patiently as she sweeps up the stray coffee into a small pile that she transfers into a bin.

"The meeting is in two days," He says, taking a sip, "And I have no fucking idea what's going to happen."

Louise's brow furrows in confusion, _what meeting?_ But then she remembers the odd woman with pale hair and the scar across her cheek. The one who, despite looking fairly normal, had left Louise feeling jittery long after she left, double-checking her locks and closing her blinds when she went to sleep that night. The woman who had left an envelope detailing a meeting Five would have with her superiors.

"You're going?" Louise queries.

He frowns into his coffee and shrugs his shoulders, "What choice do I have?"

"What do you mean?"

He heaves a sigh and says, "I have to do this or the consequences will be most dire."

He sounds so pretentious in that moment that Louise wants to make fun of him for it but his tone is resigned and miserable.

"Lay it out for me," Louise says, knowing that the full story is much larger than what she's been able to piece together.

"The woman is --" He cuts himself off and looks frustrated when he forces himself to say, "She saved me from a really shitty situation and I stayed with her and helped out her organisation for a while before coming back here."

Louise tries reading between the lines because even when he's being honest and telling her the truth, he seems to leave much of the story unsaid. She's guessing that the split wasn't particularly amiable.

"Okay?"

"I betrayed her organisation and stopped them from doing something really bad."

_Oh shit, what sort of government conspiracy bullshit is he caught up in?_ Louise opens her mouth to ask but he leans forwards and tells her, "She is one of the most terrifying people I've ever met and she's not even that far up in the chain. Compared to the people I'm meeting, she's jack shit."

Louise looks him over again. His eyes are red and slightly bloodshot and his hair, smooth and slightly fluffy is messier than she's ever seen it. His pure white shirt under the blazer and jumper doesn't even look like it's been ironed, and his tie isn't centred down his chest. He looks like a mess.

"Is it going to be dangerous? Do I need to call the cops?"

He barks out a laugh, "Last time a cop got involved she died and she was only facing one of her minions."

"Or two," he amends after a moment, "Hazel and Cha-Cha were always a packaged deal."

The use of code names pushes his story into absurdist territory and Louise tells him, "You gotta give me one reason not to call the cops right now because this sounds more dangerous than anything you or I can handle."

He glares at her, "I just told you. The last time cops got involved they died. Besides, if I go to this meeting there's a chance that things can work out peacefully. Getting the cops involved practically promises bloodshed."

She's always known that there was something dangerous about Five but it hadn't sunk in just how strange the life he's leading was until she hears him offhandedly mention that people are going to get hurt. She sighs, "What about your family?"

"What about them?" He shoots back.

"Won't they help you?"

He shakes his head resolutely, "Luther already thinks I'm a monster and none of the others like me, let alone trust me."

"They don't trust you?"

His hands tighten around the mug and his shoulders hunch.

His voice is almost shaky when he says, "I asked if they trusted me and they said they didn't. It wasn't even a question. Maybe I've been gone so long that they don't even recognise me as family any more or maybe they never did trust me but the bottom line is that they don't."

Louise feels the urge to punch someone. She inhales deeply, "What if you explained things? Would they at least help?"

He swallows, "No, I don't think they will. They'll probably think it's my fault for getting into this situation in the first place but they don't understand!"

His eyes wildly see hers out, wide and distressed, "I had no choice," he implores, "I never wanted to become what I did but I had to – I needed to – get back to my family and that was the only way. I had to protect them and now none of them trust me and –"

He buries his face in his hands, cutting himself off. Louise hesitates, hand hovering over his shoulder. She eventually pulls back and he says, "They don't trust me and they won't help. I know it."

"Okay." It lands heavily and he shudders before pulling himself back together, lowering his hands and raising his face.

"I'll help you," she continues before she can think about what she's promising. "I'm working on Wednesday; closing shift. So, if you need me, I'll be here from about lunchtime."

He stares at her, seemingly assessing whether he can trust her word and after a moment, whispers a weak, "Okay."

They sit in silence as he slowly drinks his coffee and, as he puts down the mug for the last time and pulls a note out of his inner breast pocket, he wryly says, "Let's just hope I make it out of that meeting to come to you for help."

Louise scowls, "Ask your siblings for help. I'm not saying that they will help but at least try."

"We'll see," he says and he's out of the shop the next minute, crossing the road and walking away and Louise can only hope that he'll ask his family for help.

 

*

 

Monday is, as Mondays often are, hell. She'd gotten in to work in the morning and she'd worked the entire day. It's late at night and Louise is nearly done closing shop. Imogen had already left ten or so minutes ago and Louise just had to lock up. She’d put on her coat and is just trying to get the key into the lock by the light of the streetlamps when a voice shouts at her, “Hey, are you shut?”

She shrieks and drops the keys. She quickly picks them up and when Louise turns around, she’s greeted with the sight of two very odd men. One of them is wearing all black and _is that leather?_ He has some sort of weird bondage gear on and, as he moves towards her, she sees the light glinting off something metal against his leg. Somehow, he’s the more normal one of them as the other man is wearing a black skirt and a sheer shirt with only a long fur coat on over the top. It’s a statement, alright. His face, while beautiful is covered in terrible makeup. That is, it’s dark and smeared everywhere, almost like he washed his face in the morning and only realised he had make up on when it started smudging.

The one in the skirt slows down from his light jog as he approaches while the bondage man approaches confidently at a normal walking pace. They stop a metre or two away from Louise and she fumbles to grab her phone from her pocket, just in case.

“Uh, yeah. We shut half an hour ago but the last customers only just left.”

“Aw, shucks,” the guy in the skirt says sadly.

“There’s other places you could go to,” Louise ventures cautiously.

“Sure there are but we wanted to come here.”

_Okay, that wasn’t weird at all._

The other guy – bondage man – cuts in and says, “Our sisters met someone here who actually seemed to like our brother. We thought we should investigate.”

Louise didn’t want to judge but so far all of Five’s family had had the same weird feeling around them like they weren’t quite normal and, even if she did ignore the way they looked like they came out of a particularly kinky brothel, they had the same look in their eyes and stance as Five and his sisters had.

“You mean Five?” She asks and immediately the man in the skirt brightens.

“You know our darling little psycho?” He purrs and Louise fights the urge to lean away.

“Sure.”

“Well then, let’s buy you some dinner.” He looks like he’s about to clap his hands in glee and the other man looks extremely put out but resigned. It’s easy to see how they’re related.

“I’m sorry but I don’t even know who you two are,” Louise starts locking the door again and she can see the man in the skirt pout as he dramatically leans against the shopfront.

“He spoke about Allison and Vanya but not me?” He sounds so pitifully sad that Louise almost feels sorry for him.

“He barely said anything about them but sorry, only mentioned that he had more siblings.”

“Well, Five has always been a biased little shit,” the man in the skirt leans in towards Louise and stage whispers, “Vanya and Ben were always his favourites but Ben is dead and Vanya is now besties with Allison.”

Louise isn't even sure what to reply to: the casual mention of a dead sibling or the fact that this fully-grown man is pouting over who his kid brother's favourite siblings are. Louise almost wonders why Five couldn't have had a normal family but the thought of him living the bland suburban life with the family Christmas photos and 2 and ½ kids is one of the funniest things Louise has thought of today. She can almost imagine him disavowing God and Christianity while being forced to pose in an elf costume.

She's pulled from her thoughts when the man in the skirt flaps his hand at a blank space to his right and hisses. Louise automatically turns to see if maybe there's a stray cat crossing the road but she sees nothing. For lack of a more normal audience, Louise sends a confused look at the bondage man who somehow looks even more fed up.

"Klaus," he reprimands, stepping forward and putting a hand on the man in the skirt's shoulder, "You're scaring off a perfectly normal woman."

The man in the skirt – Klaus? – glares at him and melodramatically declares that "It's not _his_ fault that he had the munchies and it's not _his_ fault that it took half an hour to convince anyone to take him out for dinner."

The bondage man rolls his eyes, and slowly approaches Louise with what he probably thinks looks like an approachable and kind smile.

"I'm Diego and that's my brother Klaus. I'm sorry about," he frowns, "him."

Klaus gasps in horror and clutches his chest, "Et tu, Brutus."

Louise gets the sentiment of the statement but no one else has done anything so the context doesn’t really work. Louise starts shivering and subtly checks her phone; it's getting late. She tells the two men this.

Klaus looks horrified and Louise wonders if he's always this dramatic but as she looks him over again she realises that he probably is. If he were, it would explain half of the stress Five carries around with him. The other man – Diego –  looks less horrified and more frustrated. It certainly explains the stress Diego is carrying around with him.

"We don't mean to make you uncomfortable but –"

Klaus cuts in, "We're not here to attack you or anything. We just want to talk."

Diego sends him a confused look, "Why would she think we're here to attack her?"

"Oh, you know the two strange men approaching her while she's alone in the dark asking her to talk."

Diego makes an ‘oh’ face and carefully takes a few measured steps back to reintroduce space between them. Louise appreciates the sentiment.

"I swear, we just wanted to see if you knew Five well. Give us some advice or something, you know?"

While these two men look like an R-rated comedy duo there's something about the genuine way Diego is asking for advice about Five. If they are siblings then this might mean that Five's attempts to connect with his siblings are actually being reciprocated and Louise is apparently the one providing them with the tools to do so. Behind him, Klaus is nodding emphatically, a mopey look on his face as he says something to the blank space next to him.

While Allison had also asked for information about Five, there was something in the tone of her voice and the poise of her stance that seemed dishonest or at least manipulative and Vanya hadn't expressed an opinion one way or the other. She was, according to Klaus, Five's favourite but considering the fact that he barely mentioned his siblings Louise could easily say that he wasn't any closer to his siblings than she was to him.

At least the men in front of her seemed genuinely concerned and interested. Knowing she'd probably come to regret this later, she asks, "Can you prove that you're Five's siblings?"

Immediately a bright smile crosses Klaus' face and he jumps a little before pulling out a phone. He holds it in front of her face and presses the on button. The screen turns on and Louise is granted a picture of Five sitting on top of a fridge, mid-sneeze, with a bowl of cereal on his lap and a glass of apple juice in his hand in the process of spilling down onto the floor. It's genuinely the greatest thing Louise has ever seen and she immediately tells Klaus to send it to her, rattling off her phone number without any of the previous doubt that had kept her away from these men.

As her phone dings in her hand with a new notification she says, "There's a diner a few blocks away that makes good food. It's breakfast food but still good."

"I _love_ breakfast food," Klaus tells her and the three of them start walking towards the diner. As they do so, Louise can't help but notice the differences between the siblings; where Diego prowls down the street with his eyes flickering across the road and through the shadows, Klaus is much more carefree with his loosely swinging hands and amiable chatter that helps fill the silence of the late hour and they soon make it to the diner.

It's not quite as nice as the coffeeshop where Louise works, if she does say so herself but it feels warmer and more personal with walls in a warm beige and rich red couches. When they go inside, Louise immediately picks a booth far from anyone else but still in clear sight of others; no one would be able to hear their conversation but they would still be able to see if she needs help.

Sliding in on one side, Klaus and Diego sit on the other. A moment later a waitress comes over with a tired smile on her face and she makes to hand them menus but Louise waves hers away, having been here often enough to know what she'd like to order. Diego and Klaus follow suit and Louise takes it as her cue to place her order, asking the waitress for pancakes and a hot chocolate. She doesn't pay attention to the others as they order and instead taps out a quick message to her sister explaining the bare details of the situation.

_@ a restaurant w/ two men. met tonight, idk who they are. klaus and diego. said theyre fives brothers n want to know him better. if i die u get my uni debt. also will send u txts to check in justin. ily_

She tacks the 'I love you' onto the end because, as cheesy and casual as it is, she's all too aware that if the night doesn't go well and the men were lying, then it might be her last chance to let her sister know that she did in fact care. They sit in relative silence as they wait for the food to come out; _she really doesn’t want the waitress interrupting their conversation when she brings their food,_ Louise thinks.

When it does come, it looks inviting with fluffy pancakes and bowl of thick golden syrup and a sprinkle of berries on the side of the plate. A quick look to the other side of the table shows that Klaus has ordered waffles and that Diego has ordered eggs. She waits for them to start talking first, cutting into her pancakes as she does.

They break relatively quickly and Diego starts off their conversation by clearing his throat and Louise isn't sure if it's to get her attention or whether he genuinely needs to do it. He looks nervous though, so that may be it.

"So, what do you know about our family?"

There's something presumptuous about the way he says it like he's famous or, judging by his outfit, infamous.

Louise smiles tightly and takes pride in the shock in their faces when she says, "Nothing."

"Five only mentioned that he was overseas alone for a few years and then came back. I know he has six siblings," Louise holds up her hands and lifts a finger for each name she lists, "Allison, Vanya, Klaus, Diego, and ..."

She's two names short. Thinking back Klaus had mentioned someone called Ben so she lifts another finger and cautiously says, "Ben?"

Klaus nods and Louise tries to think if she'd heard another name. She remembers Five mentioning someone earlier today but she just can't remember his name. She struggles for a moment but nope, nada, zilch, no other names come to mind.

"Uh, and Fuckface," she chucks out because she has no idea who the final sibling is and lifts her final finger victoriously.

Diego bursts out laughing and Klaus snorts into his hot chocolate.

"You're more accurate than you think. Luther is a fuckface," Diego says.

Louise nods, "Yes, well, he doesn't talk much about himself but you don't have a good relationship with Five, do you?"

"Oh, Louise," Klaus says sympathetically, "We don't have a good relationship with anyone. Look at us, do we look like we're capable of that. Daddy dearest fucked us up as kids and now everyone in our family is barely functioning."

Louise looks him in the eyes and says firmly, "That's no excuse."

"Exsqueeze me."

Klaus had, until this point seemed harmless. Even if he wasn't sitting beside the far more intimidating figure of Diego, he looks as if a stiff wind would knock him over. He's thin, almost unhealthily so and he doesn't look like he's been taking care of himself. But, as Louise calls him out on his shit, a dangerous looks crosses his face and Louise remembers the glimpse of the dog tags she had caught around his neck as they walked down to the diner. His hand tightens around his mug and Louise leans back against her seat, trying to create distance in case he decides to throw it at her.

"You had a fucked up childhood but you can't allow that to define you," Louise states coldly.

"You sound just like Five," Klaus mutters, "No wonder he puts up with you."

"You had a fucked up childhood and now because you can't get over your problems you're gonna give Five a fucked up childhood," Louise explains. "I'm not saying you have to get over it and ignore what happened to you but if you are going to be around a child you can't take it out on them. Especially a child like Five."

"What do you mean?" Diego cuts in. He's placed a hand across Klaus' chest, holding him against the couch but otherwise looks relaxed, sipping carefully at his coffee.

"Come on," Louise exclaims, "Do I have to spell it out to you? Being isolated for years on end with no one to talk to, no one to help you, to love you will fuck up a person. He loves you all dearly but his circumstances make it harder for him to connect with you."

Her hand trembles and her toes curl in her shoes. Louise notices that she's gritted her teeth and takes a deep breath, releasing some of the tension that had been building up in her shoulders.

"I thought you said he didn't mention us."

"He doesn't talk about you individually but whenever he talks about his siblings in general I can tell that he fucking thinks the world of all of you. He loves you all so much and it hurts him to know that you can't stand his presence and that you don’t even trust him."

"He loves us?" Diego says, his face twisting around the words as if he can scarcely believe them.

"Do you know what he talks to me about? He talks to me about how to connect with you because he tries so hard to be there but it turns out that being alone for so long makes it hard to be around people."

Louise notices that her voice has been progressively getting louder with every word that passes her lips and casts a quick glance around the diner to see if anyone is listening. No one is but she still continues talking at a much quieter volume.

"He has problems, I'm not denying that but at least he's trying. What are you two doing?"

The accusation lays heavy between them and the table falls silent.

"He's an asshole who won't stop talking down to us," Diego starts.

"I don't care," Louise interjects, "He's a child."

"What if he wasn't?" Klaus says. A cruel smile is playing across his face and Louise feels as if she's walking into a trap.

"What?"

"What if he wasn't a child?"

"It doesn't matter how old he is, he is your _brother_ , your family, and he should be treated better than this. Let's say he is an adult," Louise waves a hand dismissively, "It doesn't matter because unlike you, he's trying."

"No offense, darling, but you know shit about us," Klaus seems like he's getting frustrated and he makes a slapping gesture to the empty space by his side. Diego, while still silent, seems to echo Klaus' sentiments.

"You're right, I don't have the full story and unless you tell me about it, I never will. All I know is that Five loves you and has difficulties showing it and that none of you assholes are meeting him halfway."

Diego twitches and Louise turns to face him. Before she manages to say or do anything, Klaus is there, pulling his hand away from his hips. Where his knives are, Louise realises and feels faint. While he had been relatively blank-faced since she had met him, Diego is now staring at her with a sort of ferocious anger.

"Now, now," Klaus trills, "Let's take a few deep breaths and continue talking like the responsible adults we're meant to be."

The only noise is Diego's consistent and measured deep breathing as he inhales, exhales, and inhales again. Over and over until he opens his eyes and calmly says, "We did try."

Louise cocks an eyebrow in his direction and he continues.

"When Five first got back we tried to catch up with him and, you know, be brothers again but he didn't want that. He was always pushing us away and telling us there were more important things. He lied to us and didn't tell us anything important until it was too late and he got my ... friend killed. Of course I don't trust him and of course I don't try to get close to him. He didn't want it before, why is it any different now?"

Louise wishes she had the answer but she just doesn't know enough Five to respond properly. There's too much to unpack in what Diego had just said. What had Five been doing that someone died because of him and what had stopped him from getting close to his siblings at the start? She's saved from having to when Klaus mouth drops and his eyes widen.

"He _has_ been trying to get to know us. Oh, that dumbass."

"Huh?" Diego turns to face him, giving Klaus his full attention and Klaus seems to brighten at the attention.

"He keeps coming into my room and asking about when I was in Vietnam. I thought he was trying to be an asshole but he was just trying to bond over shared experiences. Oh, and when he kept demanding I take him out to some restaurant because they wouldn't let a child eat alone. He also got the mausoleum demolished and, _holy shit_ , he did it for me. I didn't even realise he still remembered the mausoleum."

Klaus' brows furrow and his mouth turns downwards, shoulders slumping, "He has been trying."

Diego pauses for a few moments, eyes flickering to the side in thought, his teeth pressing lightly down on his lower lip. When he's sitting like this, head slightly upturned and face relaxed, he looks quite handsome. Klaus does too, Louise thinks to herself. With his gorgeous eyes and curling, dark hair that is wild around his head, he is beautiful in a chaotic way that contrast with Diego’s stronger, more typically masculine attractiveness. Diego’s dark eyes and hair and clothes all add to a dangerous look that is only accentuated by the scars. It's only in this moment of deep thought that Louise realises that Five is either extremely lucky or extremely unlucky to have such a beautiful family. She could easily imagine any one of them on television.

"He asked me about Eudora but I thought he was just guilty," Diego says slowly, as if piecing together a puzzle, "And he asked if I wanted to apply to the police academy again. He's visited me at the gym and watched a few of my matches. He offered to go to a weaponry store a few days ago."

He turns to Louise, a much more forgiving expression on his face, "Don't doubt that we love him, we just don't like him. He's annoying and arrogant but he's still our brother."

Judging by the look on Klaus' face, it's odd to see Diego this open and it makes Louise happy that she might be able to help with this.

"This isn't just your fault," Louise soothes, "Five isn't the easiest person and he's certainly not open about his intentions or his feelings. I just want you to know that he is trying and he does care about you."

A smile crosses Diego's face, so soft and gentle that Louise almost wants to take him home to meet her parents.

"You just gotta learn how to read him; his body language and what he really means when he talks. It's hard and I'm trying to get him better at communicating but ..." Louise trails off.

She's not a psychologist, she can barely fix her own problems, let alone a dysfunctional family of seven. Six, if Klaus was being truthful about the dead sibling. She almost jumps when Klaus claps a hand down on top of hers. Warm and slightly sweaty, its weight is more comforting than she thought it would be.

"It's not your job to fix him," he looks at her with plaintive eyes, "Trust me on that."

He clears his throat suddenly and says, "Now that we've got that out of the way, we have a wonderful meal in front of us and so many embarrassing stories to share. I can begin with the time he asked me to pick him up from some old lady's house because she invited him in and he couldn't figure out how to say no."

Louise settles in to her spot, cutting a wedge of pancake, drizzling it with syrup and lifting it to her mouth, as she listens to Klaus begin his story. His eyes are light and Diego's face is warm, watching him, and Louise feels glad that while they aren't close to Five, at least they have each other.

 

*

 

He comes in early the next morning just after Louise finishes putting down the last chair. She blinks at him and covers her mouth as she yawns. Turning around, she squints out the window to see the sun barely visible over the buildings on the other side of the road, and then turns back to check that he is actually there. For once he looks well-rested with his hair neatly combed and his shirt pressed. It's still that goddamn uniform and before Louise can try and filter out her words she's asking him, "Why don't you own anything else yet?"

He arches an eyebrow and she gestures at his attire.

"I haven't had time to go shopping yet and no one's offered to take me," He shrugs.

"Can't you borrow something from one of your siblings?" Louise rubs a hand over her face and sluggishly moves to the coffee machine.

"Some of my siblings' sartorial choices leave much to be desired," He follows her with something like a bounce in his step.

Staring blankly at the coffee machine, she eventually turns it on before remembering to reply to Five.

"Which one? Allison and Vanya seem pretty normal. Klaus and Diego are a bit odd, though. Do they work at the, uh, pub downtown?"

She grabs some of the coffee grinds from the tub she keeps in the cupboard for early shifts and taps it into the portafilter, pressing it down firmly.

"You've met Diego and Klaus? You didn't think to tell me?" The first half sounds confused but as he keeps talking, he starts sounding angry like he thinks she deliberately withheld this from him.

"Well I only met them last night, so ...." She trails off with a pointed stare in his direction before continuing, "We had dinner together."

She's locked the portafilter into the grouphead and turned the machine on, sliding a mug underneath it, when she notices the silence.

"... You had dinner with them?"

There's something heavy in his voice and Louise suddenly remembers how Five said they had no interest in him. _Shit._ She leans back to the other side of the counter to flick the kettle on and when it beeps on, she leans against the counter and pats him on the back of a small hand.

"I had a little chat to them about being nicer to you," Her voice is unintentionally patronising but she wasn't the asshole who came in at exactly six in the morning.

He smacks her hand away and she backs off, waiting for the kettle to boil. She empties out the coffee grounds into the bin and refills it, placing a second cup on the drip tray. Behind her the kettle beeps again and she pours hot water into the mug of coffee. She places it next to the machine and turns it on again to make his coffee.  He snatches it off the counter and takes a sip like the rude little brat he is. His face scrunches up as steam billows up around the surface of the coffee and he sticks his tongue out for just a second as he puts it back down. Pulling it back over to herself, Louise sighs before pouring two packets of sugar into her coffee and grabbing him a cup of cold water and pushing it his way.

She adds the hot water to his coffee as he begins slowly drinking the glass of water. With the radio not turned on yet and only the odd car driving past outside, it's a peaceful start to the day. When she glances over at Five, he's replaced the water with the coffee and he's staring out the window, leaning against the counter.

"They seemed nice enough. A little bit odd but kind."

He shoots her a curious look, his shoulders relaxed and tie loosened around his neck.

"I feel like they would help you if you asked. You know with your meeting."

He sighs and it's so reminiscent of her mother that Louise automatically straightens her back.

"Klaus and Diego have their own shit to deal with and they're not particularly reliable. Too easily distractible," He explains.

"Ah," Louise says eloquently, "It's tomorrow, isn't it?"

He nods absently, bringing his coffee up to his lips for another sip only to realise it's empty when he tips it back and nothing comes out. He frowns and Louise gently pries it out of his hands to make another.

"Have you at least told someone what you're doing tomorrow?"

"I told you, didn't I?"

Louise fumbles with the mug and the shot drips onto her hand for a second before she manages to get the mug back under the stream of coffee.

"I don't count," She frowns.

"And why not?" His tone is obstinate and it's too early for Louise to deal with this.

"Because," She drawls, "I don't live with you so I won't know if you don't make it back and I don't have any of your siblings' numbers so I can't call anyone for help."

He sends her an appraising look with pursed lips before pulling a phone out of his pocket and sliding it over to her. It's the same model as Klaus', Louise notes, but in better shape and not bright pink. Pressing the home button, Louise is disappointed to see it's the default wallpaper, and she's not surprised when the pin prompt comes up.

She makes to slide it back over to him but he waves her off and says, "6, 7, 2, 4, 3, 1."

She types it in and the phone unlocks to show a picture of his siblings. She immediately picks out Klaus sitting in between Vanya and Allison on a ridiculously ornate couch with Diego and some buff man standing behind it with a beautiful blonde woman between them. In Klaus' lap there is the head of a statue and they're all smiling at the camera. Five is conspicuously absent from the photo and Louise can only hope that it's because he was taking the photo. It's painfully sweet and Louise doesn't even realise she's smiling until she hears Five clear his throat pointedly.

"The orange icon with the person," He tells her like she wouldn't know how to find the contacts application.

Louise bites her tongue however and navigates to it, ignoring how the only apps on the phone are the defaults. There aren't any games but there are a couple of unread texts. When she opens the app she sees all of ten contacts: his siblings, his own number, someone called Hazel, someone else called Grace, Caroline, and another contact called Temps Commission. The name Hazel seems familiar but Louise ignores it, quickly adding her contact as _Louise - Coffee :P_ before forwarding the contacts on to her phone number. She sends Diego's, Klaus', Allison's, Vanya's, Caroline’s, and Five's own number to herself before closing the app. Just in case.

"You should reply to your texts," Louise tells him and he gestures for her to do so.

"Hazel says that he still hasn't found Cha-Cha but that he is thinking of going on a cruise with Agnes and Klaus says," Louise pauses, chuckles, and continues, "and I quote, ' _Lil gremlin the beans are gone and I know you were munching on them. Vanya says we gotta add shit to the shopping list when they run out and I refuse to take the blame for this. Not again.'_ Holy shit, what sort of beans?"

He blankly looks at her and monotonously declares, "Coffee."

Louise starts giggling, "Do you sit on the fridge when you eat 'em?"

The look on his face reminds her that Five may not have seen Klaus' wallpaper yet. Klaus had seemed nice enough but her loyalty lay with Five.

"Check Klaus' phone next time you see him."

While he looks no less confused, there is a dawning sense of horror and he almost seems to pale. Louise opens her mouth to reply when the phone buzzes in her hand and she looks down to see a message from a new phone number.

Frowning she reads out, "' _Five, the meeting is tomorrow but even though our business relationship will most probably end as we know it, your companionship is treasured. Care to meet me for a stroll? I have some lollies from the 20's'._ Uh, what?"

Five seems pensive, and, after a moment dictates, "Reply that I'll see her soon, is she still only on liquids or can I pick up a muffin?"

He stands up, fishing out a wallet and pulling out some notes to place on the counter. Louise has just hit send when she gets a response.

"She says that she loves orange and poppyseed muffins, so grab her one of those. Who is this person?"

"Oh, she's the woman who brought the envelope."

Louise chokes on air. It's not her greatest moment but, given what Five had just told her, it seems justified. Five seems bemused by her reaction and not at all concerned about the fact that the woman who worked for a dangerous organisation was planning to have muffins with him.

"What the fuck," She says emphatically.

Five lets out a quiet huff, "She may be a stone-cold bitch but she's clever," He shrugs, "And she was my only friend for a few years."

"But all those warnings yesterday? What about them? What about the whole death and harm thing?"

He flaps a hand dismissively, "I'm worried about her superiors, they're unknowns but I know the Handler and I know I can handle her."

He shoots her a quick smirk, and Louise is too shocked to even react to that frankly horrible joke. Slumping back against the wall behind her, Louise rubs her eyes.

"The Handler?" She asks eventually.

He just nods, "Her name."

Sighing, she comments, "No wonder you're friends."

He tilts his head and Louise immediately says, "You both have weird-ass names."

He rolls his eyes and Louise swears he's never looked as much like a teenager as he does now.

"What a wonderful basis for friendship," He sneers and Louise wags a finger at him.

"Get rid of that shitty tone or that will have to be the basis of all your friendships."

He heaves a sigh and tells her, "I've gotta go now but I have your phone number so if, on the slightest chance, something does go wrong, I'll contact you."

"You'd better," Louise warns and Five just walks out calmly.

 

*

 

It's barely half an hour later when the doors open and Louise hears a loud group make their way in. Squatting down, checking the cupboards for an extra bottle of syrup, Louise doesn't see who they are until she hears them get close to the counter and she heaves herself back to her feet. The bottles still lay around her on the floor and the quick movement from the ground to standing up right has Louise blinking back black dots. She blankly greets whoever the customers with a, "Hi, how are you?"

It's only after a few seconds that Louise's vision fully returns and she sees Five's siblings. Allison and Klaus stand directly before her while Diego and Vanya are standing a couple of metres back, engaged in quiet conversation. Klaus smiles broadly at her and even with his dark eyes and messy hair he still looks less frightening than Allison when she smiles. Louise forces herself to smile back at Allison but her smile when she looks to Klaus feels a bit more genuine.

"If I were you, I'd be careful with my phone for the next few days," Louise warns Klaus and he quirks an eyebrow at her.

"And why do I need to do that?"

"Well," Louise leans in conspiratively, "The 'lil gremlin' has discovered that your phone lockscreen may not be the most flattering."

He gasps in faux shock and declares, "You betrayed me!"

Louise shrugs helplessly, "I've known Five longer. Besides, at least I told you."

Allison laughs into a closed hand and it’s raspier than before and barely there.

Louise frowns, "Would you like a tea or something? Sounds like you're coming down with something."

Allison grimaces and even Klaus' cheery demeanour is dampened.

"Ah, no thanks," She whispers before turning to Klaus and telling him, "I'll go see what Vanya and Diego want."

She moves back to them and Klaus leans forward, "I'm sorry about that. She was in an accident that stuffed with her voice a bit. It's mostly better now but it's still not 100%."

Ah, that explains why she hasn't really spoken much today. Louise nods sympathetically before asking for their order. She finishes it and is placing the mugs of coffee on the table where they sat down when she finally asks the question that had been bugging her since they got here.

"Have you noticed anything off about Five recently?"

The blank looks she receives are answer enough but Vanya hesitantly says, "He's been a bit weird but he's been weird since he got back so I didn't think it was anything major. Is there something we should be worried about?"

She genuinely seems concerned and Louise remembers how she'd been described as one of Five's favourites. Her calmness seems like it would fit together nicely with Five's own tempestuous emotions. It's odd that he doesn't seem to spend time with her, or any of his other siblings either. Klaus had also seemed quite open to Five and Louise can see them having fun together. Yet, Five is still alone while the four older siblings are spending time together and they haven't even noticed that Five had been on edge for the past few days. While she could pass it off as a thing of adults wanting to spend time together without children, Louise still hasn't met the final living sibling. _Luther, was it?_

Louise smiles tightly at her, "Nothing that's any of your business, apparently."

Diego sneers at her and snappily remarks, "Typical, that little shit never shares with the class and then gets pissed off when we know nothing."

"Child," Louise reminds him and he tips his mug of coffee in acknowledgement at her.

Vanya leans forward and looks up at Louise with kind eyes, "Will he be alright?"

Louise sighs, “I’ve got no idea.”

She did have a fairly good idea, actually, but if Five had decided not to tell his family, then it wasn’t her place to rat him out. She mentally makes a note to text Caroline about the matter and see what she thinks about telling his siblings but until then, her lips are sealed.

Diego’s brow furrows and he looks up at her, opening his mouth to speak but Louise quickly cuts him off, “I’m worried and I can’t tell you much but just be on the alert.”

Klaus slaps a hand against Allison’s arm and whispers to her, “Lookie here, a real friend. Loyal and everything.”

Allison rolls her eyes but nods affirmatively back and Louise realises that the distance between Five and his siblings may not just be a barrier between him and the rest of the family, rather a distance that is present between most of the siblings. It’s almost like they’ve paired up with the one sibling closest to them and don’t really know the others. Allison-and-Vanya and Klaus-and-Diego. It’s comforting to know it’s not just Five who isn’t close enough with his siblings but it’s also heartbreaking to know that even the adults aren’t any closer than a rediscovered friend from years ago.

Louise leans over to Vanya, who still looks somewhat concerned and pats her hand firmly, like she does with Five, and consoling states, “He’s a strong kid, he’ll make it through.”

Vanya smiles tightly at her, barely a twitch of her lips, but there’s something genuine about it.

As she leans back, Louise catches Allison sending her a curious look and Klaus giving her a double thumbs up. As she takes in Allison’s attire for the day – a simple red knit top with a pair of suit pants – and Klaus’ tight pants and tropical tank, Louise remembers the lack of diversity in Five’s wardrobe.

“You all work, right?” Louise asks before her internal filter could kick in and determine that a) bad phrasing and b) none of her business.

Luckily enough they seem to take it well enough. Klaus exaggeratedly cringes and shakes his head firmly in a ‘no’ while the others all nod.

“If you all work then why does Five only wear his old school uniform? Why haven’t you taken him shopping?”

Allison’s mouth opens but nothing comes out but a quiet rasping noise, and she pulls a small notebook and pen out of her purse and writes something down before showing Louise.

_We were busy before and it didn’t occur to me. Does he want that?_

Louise reads it and sends Allison an incredulous look, “Would you want to wear a school uniform every day?”

Allison grimaces and shakes her head.

“Well, there you go. Maybe you two can make it a sibling bonding day or something,” Louise throws out.

Allison smiles at her and takes a sip from her mug. Behind her, the door opens and the hipster squad from the studio three shops up walk in.

Louise awkwardly clears her throat, “I’d better get back to work but if you want to order anything else, feel free to let me know.”

She bobbles her head a bit in a parting nod before scurrying back to the counter to make one of the most longwinded and complicated drinks she ever gets. As she makes the hipster squad’s drinks she looks over at Five’s siblings and is almost grateful to note that they seem to be engaged in quiet conversation. The next time she looks over, they’re grabbing their things and as they walk out Klaus waves at her with a tattooed hand while Vanya wiggles her fingers in a more conservative wave.

 

*

 

The next day is extremely stressful and Louise spends her entire shift with her eyes on the door, waiting to see if – no, when – Five would turn up. He’d said that he would and even though Louise would usually doubt a child claiming something as threatening as Five did, he wasn’t an ordinary child and the threat he spoke of seemed legitimate. Even Imogen had noticed that Louise was distracted and had sent her a few concerned looks throughout the day. Louise isn’t sure whether to be grateful when her shifts ends or worried because Five has no idea where she lives and she can’t just stay at work waiting for him to show up, if he even did.

It was after she had locked up and was walking home that Louise hears a loud crash from a nearby alley and Five comes stumbling out. She gasps when she sees him because even in this terrible lighting, Louise can tell that he’s not in good shape. His hair is mussed and his arm is clutched over his stomach in a very concerning way. She rushes up to him and he only watches her approach with a weary look in his eyes.

“Holy fuck, Five,” She greets as she grabs him with both hands and wraps him in a tight hug, “I was so worried.”

He grunts and Louise pulls back, looking him over. Even in the dark gap between streetlights she can see that part of his jumper is darker than the rest and she automatically pulls her phone out of her pocket. He reaches out with the hand that’s not across his stomach and pulls at her wrist.

She arches an eyebrow at him and says, “If you say what I think you’re going to say, I will slap you.”

He grimaces, “No hospitals.”

It’s a light slap, more like a soft push of her hand against his face.

“You are bleeding and you need to go to a hospital.”

He shakes his head stubbornly, “The meeting went well and I won’t risk jeopardising it over some silly hospital trip when I can just fix the problem myself.”

“Jesus fuck,” Louise swears and pulls him towards her as he starts to sway.

“I can’t patch you up and you can’t patch yourself up either. You’ve gotta go to the hospital.”

“I can,” he stubbornly insists, “Do you have a first aid kit at your place?”

“… Yeah,” Louise says and is immediately tugged after him as Five starts walking the way she had, towards her apartment. As she starts follows him, she notices him pocket her phone that he had apparently grabbed sometime while she was talking, effectively stopping her from calling the hospital. She reluctantly speeds up just enough to overtake him and start guiding him towards her apartment, still allowing him to dictate their speed.

As they get closer and closer to her apartment, Louise notices him starting to flag and hears his breathing get heavier and harsher with each step they take. Unsure of whether he’s going to be able to make it, despair grows heavily in her stomach. She bites her lip and looks around, “We’re only like twenty metres from my place,” She tells him.

She just hopes he can make it. They do and Louise nearly has to pull him up the stairs to her apartment. She’s breathing as heavily as he is by the time she’s got him down on her couch. She allows herself to pant heavily for a few seconds before forcing herself to look at Five’s injuries better now that the lighting is better. The golden glow of her living room light isn’t perfect but it’s better than using the streetlights outside.

She pushes his blazer apart, not wanting to risk asking him to take it off, revealing his jumper underneath. His jumper is dark with blood across his stomach and Louise pulls it up, ignoring his hiss of pain as she does. The crisp shirt underneath is stained just as badly and she partially unbuttons it from the bottom up as she slowly reveals the wound. It’s a long cut, maybe fifteen centimetres across and it stretches jaggedly across his stomach, like he had tried moving out of the way.

“I thought you said the meeting went well.”

“It did,” he forces out, sweat glistening against his forehead.

Louise forces out a bitter laugh, “If this is what you call ‘well’, I don’t want to know what you call a failure.”

She pulls herself up and as she walks out of the room she calls out, “Keep pressure on that and I’ll try and grab the first aid kit.”

She looks in the bathroom first but it isn’t in its usual spot and Louise realises with horror that she had taken it out into the bedroom to make a list of what she had to restock on a few days ago She hasn’t gone shopping yet, though. Rushing to the bedroom, Louise sees the shopping list sitting harmlessly next to the nearly empty kit.

“Shit,” she swears under her breath.

It’s as she’s trying to figure out a plan B that she hears the doorbell ring and Louise’s head snaps up. _Not now,_ she thinks, panicked, hoping the person will go away. Not when Five is bleeding out on her couch and she doesn’t have the means to help him. She quietly moves back into the living room where Five is lying, and almost jumps when the bell rings again, more insistently. Creeping up to the door, Louise is surprised to see a familiar figure through the peephole.

She swings the door open and sees Caroline, with her long hair tied up in a tight bun and bundled up in a thick coat with a first aid kit in one hand. She smiles at Louise and says, “I got a feeling that you might need this,” bringing her hand up and lightly swinging the kit.

Louise silently moves to the side and lets Caroline in. She walks in calmly but as she sees Five, she drops her kit and rushes to his side, dropping to her knees and tenderly rubbing a thumb over his cheek.

“Five?” She whispers uncertainly and he groans back, not even opening his eyes.

She looks him over intently, before pursing her lips and looking up at Louise, “Shut the door and bring me the kit, I won’t let him die.”

Louise grabs the kit and Caroline pulls out a pair of rubber gloves and some antiseptic. As she begins setting up thread and gauze around her, Louise moves into the kitchen, making herself a cup of tea, knowing that she can’t actually do anything to help at the moment.

It’s stressful and Louise’s fingernails have been worn down to stubs by the time Caroline pulls off her rubber gloves and sighs heavily. She’s cleaned out the wound before stitching it shut and covering it in gauze and although Five doesn’t look any better, he doesn’t look like he’ll be getting any worse.

Rubbing a tired hand over her face, Caroline states, “He should be fine now, we just need to get some food into him when he wakes up. It wasn’t that deep, don’t worry.”

Louise swallows heavily and feels the weight lift off her shoulders. Moving to Caroline’s side she clasps her shoulder and tells her, “Sleep in my bed, I’ll look after him for a bit.”

“Okay,” Caroline replies after a moment of hesitation, smiling at her as she drags herself to her feet and moves down the hall to Louise’s bedroom.

Louise gently strokes the hair out of Five’s face before sitting down in the armchair next to the couch and flicking on the television, putting on the channel with advertisements; boring enough to keep her eye on Five without getting too distracted but still interesting enough to keep her up until Caroline woke up.

She was halfway through an oddly entertaining advertisement for nails when she first notices Five move. Quickly muting the television, Louise slips out of the armchair and on the floor next to Five as his eyes slowly flutter open.

Louise smiles gently down at him and he blinks tiredly up at her before saying, “Ouch.”

She giggles and whispers, “Yeah.”

He frowns, “Why are we whispering?”

Louise tilts her head towards her bedroom and says, “Caroline is sleeping.”

“She’s here?”

“Yeah, she showed up at my front door just as I realised I needed a first aid kit. Weird, huh?”

Five hums noncommittally, “Not really, that’s just the sort of thing Caroline does.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s like me,” Five states, like it answers all her questions.

“Huh,” Louise articulates and Five looks at her with shock in his eyes.

“You mean you actually don’t know who I am? Who my siblings are?”

Louise shrugs helplessly, “Should I?”

“Does the name ‘Hargreeves’ mean anything to you?”

Louise opens her mouth to say ‘no’ before she connects the dots. Allison Hargreeves, as in the famous actress. No wonder she had looked so familiar. The same famous actress who had been caught in a scandal due to the misuse of her powers on her daughter. It had raised lots of questions at the time about the legitimacy of her fame but Louise had been busy studying for exams and past that hadn’t paid much attention to what was happening. The same powers she had used when she was in the Umbrella Academy along with her siblings. Two of which were gone by the time she had started her career; one had died and the other had disappeared, presumed dead.

Louise quickly scans his uniform again and takes in the coat of arms on the breast pocket of his blazer, the familiar breast pocket she had thought was from one of the schools in the area. Looking at the umbrella in the upper left corner and the domino mask in the bottom left, Louise can’t believe she hadn’t pieced together the truth of the boy before.

“Ugh,” she groans, hiding her face in her palms. “You’re from the Umbrella Academy, aren’t you?”

He smirks at her and Louise just groans again.

“How could I not notice?”

“I know right, Allison is famous even without the Umbrella Academy. I’m surprised you didn’t recognise her.”

“I thought she looked familiar but I never thought she was that great of an actress. No offense,” She tacks onto the end.

He frowns, “Why would I be offended?”

Louise stammers for an answer for a few moments before another question comes to mind, “How long were you actually gone?”

He’d said he was gone for a few years but the kid from the Umbrella Academy had disappeared seventeen years ago.

He sighs before admitting, “Forty-five years, give or take.”

Louise gasps, “Holy youthfulness Batman, what the fuck?”

“I time-travelled to the future when I was thirteen and I ended up stuck in the apocalypse. I spent the rest of my life trying to get back to my family and stop them from dying in the apocalypse but it seems that my equations were wrong because I came back looking like I had when I left. Quite a disaster really. At least I managed to stop the apocalypse. It was meant to be a few months ago,” He explains.

He could time-travel? He was stuck in the apocalypse? There was an honest to God apocalypse? And he had managed to stop it? While it explained the Handler and what she had been telling Five about Dot and the apocalypse files, it threw everything else into uncertainty because _what the fuck?_  But when Louise opens her mouth the only thing that comes out is, “Dermatologists hate you.”

He stares at her in horror for a moment before he breaks down laughing. It’s loud and bright and Louise feels herself begin laughing in response. After a few moments, Louise notices the quiet presence of Caroline standing at the mouth of the all, watching them calmly. When she notices that she’s caught Louise’s eyes, Caroline calmly glides into the room and taps Five’s shoulder in warning from over the back of the couch.

“Stitches.”

Louise feels her eyes widen, _oh shit, she’d forgotten about his stitches._ He grumbles at her and Caroline tsks.

“You hungry?” Caroline asks and Five seems to ponder his answer for a second.

“Sandwich?” He asks, “Peanut butter and marshmallows?”

Caroline turns to Louise and sends her an inquisitive look.

Louise grimaces, “Theoretically, yes. I have the ingredients to make that but spiritually I don’t think I can. It physically pains me.”

Caroline sighs, “I’ll make it for you, Five.”

She then leans in close to him and whispers, “It’s pretty gross,” Before pulling away and sashaying into the kitchen. He scowls after her and Louise smiles into her hand.

They sit in silence for a few moments, listening to Caroline move around the kitchen. It’s only when she comes back out and hands Five a plate with the sandwich on it that Louise starts talking.

“What’s the current story with your siblings?”

Caroline gingerly sits down on the couch next to Five, crossing her ankles and placing her hands delicately in her lap. She angles her face slightly towards him, just enough to let him know he has her attention without overwhelming him with her full focus. It’s subtle but still rather kind.

“What do you mean?” He asks, swallowing a mouthful of sandwich.

“Well, you had your meeting in the morning and I’m assuming came straight to me and it’s currently one in the morning. So, what do they know?”

He pauses for a moment, taking another bite of his sandwich before saying, “Nothing. They are unaware of the meeting with the Commission. I left in the morning and went straight to the meeting and then straight here. I texted Vanya that I would be gone for a while and that Luther’s home.”

Caroline looks disappointed, “Really, Five?” She admonishes.

She turns to Louise, “Vanya is aware of the situation but won’t come in to check on Five or talk to his other siblings because Luther is there. She really doesn’t like him at the moment,” She explains.

Louise hisses, “You devious little bastard.”

He looks inordinately proud of himself.

Louise sighs and extends a hand in his direction. He stares at it for a moment before raising his gaze to look at her expectantly.

“Phone,” She demands.

He reaches into his breast pocket and pulls out two phones – his own and Louise’s. She takes them both. She first checks her phone and sees a text from her sister that she notes to read later. She then switches over to Five’s phone and sees several unread messages. She swipes the screen and tries to remember his pin. As if sensing her difficulties Five rattles it off and Louise puts it in.

The phone unlocks to show the same wallpaper and Louise quickly opens the message application.

“Four messages,” Louise dictates, “Hazel, The Handler, Vanya, and Klaus.”

Five groans and seems to melt into the couch cushions and Caroline softly pats his leg.

“Best to get it over and done with,” She warns.

Five flaps a hand at Louise and she takes it as her cue to start reading.

“Hazel says that Cha-Cha is still in the air but that he’s heard whispers of you going to the Commission again and he wants to know what’s up with that. The Handler says that she’s looking forward to working with you. Vanya is asking if you got back okay and Klaus wants to know where you were today. Apparently, he wanted to play darts with you and Diego.”

Five groans and Caroline laughs.

“Tell Hazel that I’ll talk to him later, ignore the Handler, tell Vanya I’m fine and that I’m with a friend, and then tell Klaus to fuck off.”

Louise scrambles to send off the messages before she forgets what Five said and when she’s done, she says, “Well, it’s still really early so I think we should all get some sleep. Caroline you can have my bed. Five, you get the couch.”

Five waves a hand at her in acknowledgement and closes his eyes. Caroline’s eyebrows pull down and she says, “I couldn’t possibly steal your bed.”

“Just share,” Five grumbles.

Louise stares hopelessly at Caroline and shrugs, “As long as you don’t mind, I don’t mind.”

Caroline smiles, soft and kind, “Of course not.”

When Louise falls asleep, it’s the fastest she’s fallen asleep in years and she’s not sure if it’s because Five is safe or because of the warm presence by her side.

 

*

 

Louise wakes up the next morning to someone insistently shaking her shoulder. Grumbling, she rolls over and curls into the warmth on the other side of the bed. She distantly hears some quiet giggling and she leans further from the noise. The shaking is replaced with poking and Louise startles awake as she hears her sister hiss her name.

Her eyes open and Louise takes in the warm body of Caroline still asleep on her left and her sister’s unimpressed form to her right, standing with a hand on her hip and an unimpressed cant to her eyebrows.

“Morning,” She drily greets and Louise groans.

“It’s not what you think.”

“It must be pretty bad then because you have a little shit in the kitchen and I found you sleeping with some lady.”

“Platonically,” Louise says as she carefully shuffles out of bed, trying not to wake the still sleeping Caroline. She grabs her sister’s arm as she walks past and as she walks into the living room she asks, “What are you doing here anyway?” “I texted you last night, said I was going to come over and take you out for food in the morning. Didn’t realise you had already eaten.”

Her tone is completely flat and if not for the slight twitch to her lips, Louise would have missed the implications.

“There is a child here!” She exclaims, scandalised.

“Yeah, about that,” Her sister says, “Why is he here?”

They turn the corner and Louise moves to the empty couch, checking it for any stains and she heaves a sigh when she sees the dark red splotch in the middle of a cushion; that’s going to be a pain to wash out. For a moment Louise wonders where Five is but as soon as she does, she hears the fridge slamming shut and shuffling feet making their way towards her. Louise looks up to see Five cautiously walking to the couch with a full mug of coffee in one hand and a bowl of cereal in the other. He places the mug on the coffee table to the right of the couch and lowers himself gently onto the couch, beginning to eat his cereal.

“How long has he been here?” Louise’s sister asks, throwing herself on the couch next to Five, who, as she does, throws her a dirty look and tilts his bowl to avoid it spilling over his legs.

“Just the night,” Louise says, lowering herself into the armchair.

“The way he’s walking around here, I’m surprised it isn’t longer.”

Louise sighs and waves her hand between the two of them, “Five meet Lottie, my sister. Lottie meet Five, the kid from work.”

Lottie hums contemplatively, looking him over and he stares back defiantly.

“Five’s a really dumb name,” Lottie declares.

“Better than a small child’s nickname,” He shoots back.

They continue to stare at each other for a few moments before Lottie says, “Hand me your mug.”

He does so begrudgingly, and she takes a swig of the coffee before handing it back over to him. His nose crinkles and he gingerly puts it back on the coaster. Louise prepares for a fight to break out but it seems like they’ve reached an agreement and the tension between them fades.

They sit there talking until Caroline comes out of Louise’s bedroom. She hesitates for a second at the mouth of the room before walking in and greeting Louise with a simple, “Good morning, thanks for lending me your bed last night.”

Louise watches as Caroline’s eyes take in Lottie for a second before she moves behind Five and ruffles his hair.

“You’re looking good today,” She says as he slaps her hand away.

Tilting his head back, he looks up at her and says, “Feel better, too. Thanks for the stitches.”

She nods before looking back up to Louise, “I’ve got to get going, is it alright if I come back in the afternoon?”

“Uh, sure,” Louise stammers and Caroline sends her a toothy grin before sweeping out the front door.

As the door closes behind Caroline, Louise hears Lottie ask her, “Are you sure it was platonic?”

Louise scowls at her sister and Five snorts. Louise’s glares turns to him and he doesn’t even have the decency to look abashed.

“Fucker.”

“Stop swearing in front of the fucking baby.”

“I’m older than you,” Five objects.

“Then why don’t you act that way?” Lottie shoots back and Louise groans.

“This is gonna be hell,” Louise mutters under her breath.

Five shoots her a grin, one of the ones that are simply too well-put together to be genuine.

“Can I hang out here for a few days?” He asks.

Louise groans again, even louder this time. She’s only working short shifts for the next few days and she doesn’t particularly want to leave him alone in the apartment but she’s not going to drag him to work or force him to go home. She looks him over and takes in the way he bats his eyes mockingly at her and the bloodstained shirt that is probably feeling really gross.

“If you’re staying, you follow the rules,” Louise starts and he leans back into the couch with satisfaction.

“I’ll babysit,” Lottie offers, “While you’re working.”

Louise casts a look at the clock against the wall and swears under her breath. She’s got maybe twenty minutes to get to work and she still hasn’t eaten or washed her face.

“Great,” She says, “You can start now. I’ll be back for late lunch. Don’t even think of making another of those sandwiches.”

As she rushes out of the room she can hear Lottie asking about the sandwich and the consequential noise of disgust that follows.

 

*

 

Five has been staying at her apartment for three days with Lottie and Caroline occasionally dropping in when he gets a text during the game of Okey. He quickly places down a yellow five to his left and Lottie scans her board before grabbing a tile from the centre. A curious look crosses Five’s face and he pulls his phone out of the pocket of one of Lottie’s old jumpers. When he sees the notification on the screen his face pales and he quickly swipes before slowly and painfully inputting his pin. He jabs the screen a few times before swearing.

“What is it?” Louise asks.

“ _’Luther left yesterday and I came over to check in on you and apparently no one’s seen you in days. Where are you???’_ ,” Five reads out before chucking his phone onto the couch that he’s leaning against.

“From Vanya?”

He nods, “From Vanya. I’ve got to get going.”

He starts pulling himself to his feet, before humming in realisation and flipping his board around, revealing that he has not only won, but that he has also won with doubles. Caroline sighs and Lottie tips her board over into the middle of the carpet, tiles scattering in the space between them.

“Do you want me to walk you?” Louise offers.

Five scans her before eventually replying, “I’m not averse to that.”

Louise nods and says, “Let me grab my coat.”

“Do you want to get changed back into your old clothes?” Louise asks.

His jumper and shirt are still horribly stained despite Louise’s attempts to wash it but he can still wear the shorts and blazer. Five seems to ponder it, looking himself over before shaking his head.

“This is fine, isn’t it?”

Louise takes him in, standing in one of Caroline’s old dresses with Lottie’s jumper over the top and winces. Louise had, for some reason slowly worked her way through her collection of pants until all that remained were a pair of starchy jeans that were not comfortable even when just lounging around at home and her workpants, leaving her unable to let Five borrow a pair of pants from her. Lottie had straight up refused to share clothes with Five and Caroline had regretfully informed them that she didn’t like pants and only had dresses and skirts. She had however offered what was undoubtedly the most comfortable dress Louise had ever felt and she regularly caught Five slowly stroking the loose fabric when he thought no one was watching. Louise almost thinks it’s the only reason he wears it but then she remembers Klaus with his skirts and also the fact that Five probably doesn’t give a fuck. Especially if he’s been in the apocalypse for as long as he says he was.

“… Sure,” She eventually says, trying to ignore the fact that her sister is over a head taller than him and that her oversized jumper is nearly comically large on him.

Lottie laughs and says, “I can’t believe you’re actually going to leave the house dressed as the trash baby you are.”

He spins to face her, so fast that Louise fears he may rip his stitches and flips her off.

Louise sighs at their antics, slipping on a coat and grabbing his phone off the couch as she moves to open the front door. As she passes through and Five follows her, she warns Lottie not to try cooking anything before locking the door behind them.

It’s a brisk morning and Louise finds herself automatically walking faster to try and warm herself up. She only slows down when she notices Five struggling to keep up. He’s slipped out of the bed socks and back into his school socks and shoes and he doesn’t look anywhere near as cold as Louise feels, despite the dress only coming to an inch or two above his knees. They cross the city quickly, albeit at a slow enough speed for Five to comfortably walk, without saying a word.

It’s only as they’re nearing the famous gates of the Umbrella Academy that Louise grabs Five’s arms to stop him and asks, “Are you okay with going back?”

He purses his lips and his eyes remain trained on the front door, “I’m fine.”

He stays silent for another moment and Louise patiently waits before he continues, “How would you like to see inside?”

He phrases it like he’s doing a favour for her and as if it’s no more than a chore for him but Louise knows him well enough to know that he’s nervous about going back in alone.

“If you want,” Louise replies.

He shrugs and grabs her wrist, tugging her in after him. The Umbrella Academy is much more austere on the inside than it appears to be on the outside. It’s almost ridiculous the amount of money that went into a massive building that only houses one family. Despite how beautiful the house is, Louise can’t help but feel that the overarching sense of emptiness dampens the beauty of the house despite the incredible artistry.

Even with the silence that seems to permeate the very walls of the building Louise doesn’t hear Diego arrive until he’s standing at the base of the stairs, watching them. Louise jumps and Five’s hand tightens around her wrist, comfortingly.

“Five,” Diego greets, “And … Coffee Girl.”

Louise opens her mouth to give her name but Five taps a finger against her arm in warning and she shuts it again.

“Diego, where’s Vanya?”

Diego jerks his head to the side where Louise sees a large archway leading into another room and says, “The living room. With the others.”

Five sighs and turns to Louise, “We may have to postpone this tour of the old shithole, seems like I’ve got a lecture or an intervention waiting for me. I’ll see you at the coffeeshop later.”

He lets go of her wrist and walks confidently into the living room, Louise staring helplessly after him. She starts hearing voices talking, indistinct and quiet but still clearly chastising. It takes a few moments for Louise to realise that Diego hasn’t followed him and when she does she’s once again shocked when she realises that he’s gotten closer without her noticing.

His dark eyes are focused intently on her when he asks, “What happened?”

Louise gulps, “Uh, he had a meeting that apparently went well but he was hiding out at my place for some reason.”

It was a bullshit answer that technically answered the question but gave no information away and Louise is almost proud. Diego just sighs, exasperated.

“He alright?”

“Keep him on bedrest,” Louise advices and Diego just nods.

As if judging the conversation to be over he turns away from her and starts moving away. Louise reaches out and grabs him just as he starts to move out of range and he reacts with impossible speed, putting her wrist in a lock and placing a knife at her throat. Louise pales but swallows down her fear as she pointedly looks from the knife to him.

“I make coffee.”

He slowly pulls the blade away and sheathes it.

“Sorry, been a bit jumpy lately.”

Louise reaches up to her throat and is relieved to feel that the skin hasn’t been pierced. That wouldn’t look good for work.

“I can tell.”

Diego looks apologetically at her, “I’m sorry.”

Louise swallows before telling him, “If you want to sort things out with him, now’s the time. I think he’s ready to talk to you.”

Diego frowns.

“I love him, I really do. He’s my family and that’s always been important to me but he’s lied about so much and he got Eudora killed.”

Louise nods.

“He loves you too.”

Diego looks disbelievingly at her and Louise reaches into her pocket and pulls out a phone. Judging by the way Diego cocks his head, he recognises it to be Five’s. She moves to Diego’s side and she types in the pin slowly. If Five asks she didn’t tell Diego the pin but if he just so happened to memorise it by watching her type it in, then it wasn’t her fault. As she finished typing it Diego laughs.

“It’s us,” He whispers.

“Huh?” Louise asks.

“Our Dad didn’t name us, just referred to us by numbers. One year we got given names as birthday present but only six of us. Five gave his to Vanya but before then we were numbers.”

Louise hums and thinks about the pin.

“Klaus said Vanya and Ben were his favourite,” She prompts.

“Six and Seven,” He says, pointing at the first two digits of the pin.

“Who’s Two?”

Diego’s silence is telling and Louise pats his arm.

“He does care, he just doesn’t know how to show you.”

She presses enter and his phone unlocks to show his messages app with Vanya’s message. She presses the home button and swipes to a page with fewer applications and shows Diego his wallpaper. He inhales harshly as he takes in the image and takes the phone out of her hand.

“I never realised he liked us all that much,” He finally says.

Louise stays silent, unsure of how to respond.

He locks the phone and slides it into one of his pockets, moving away from Louise as he does.

“I’m going to break him out of there,” he says, jabbing a thumb to the doorway Five walked through and Louise nods.

“Take him out for a coffee or something,” He continues.

“Buy him a hot chocolate. He’ll never admit it but he likes them a lot,” Louise advices and he nods a thanks to her.

She turns around and walks back out of the Umbrella Academy, feeling as if the pieces are finally coming together, not looking back to see if Diego has gone after Five or if he’s just watching her leave.

 

*

 

It’s over a week before Louise sees Five again but when she hears the bell ding early in the morning and sees Five walk in she nearly chokes. He’s wearing what looks like the winter version of the uniform with long pants but the fact that it’s a charcoal grey instead of the lighter grey of the school uniform lets Louise know that he bought this himself. Instead of the ever-present jumper and blazer combination he’s just wearing the white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his tie is missing. He confidently walks across to his seat like usual but unlike all the other times he comes, he’s flanked with Vanya and Diego on either side. Vanya, when sitting next to Five sends Louise a cautious smile and Diego nods at her. Louise gapes for a moment before the amusement on Five’s face causes her to pull herself together and make his coffee.

She slides it to him and asks Vanya and Diego, “What can I get you?”

“Just a latte and another long black,” Vanya replies and Louise starts making the two drinks.

As she slides the two drinks over, Vanya takes a sip of the latte and hums appreciatively, sliding the long black over to Diego.

Louise leans towards Five, “Huh, so are these your babysitters?”

“Fuck you,” He says, without any of the venom he had in his voice when he first met her.

She titters and apologises, ruffling his hair. Louise is almost surprised when it takes him a couple of seconds longer than usual to knock her hand away. She looks up to see Diego smiling softly at the interaction and Vanya checking her phone.

“Allison says she’ll be here in half an hour,” She reports to her siblings.

“The others are coming?” Louise asks.

Diego nods, “Everyone except Luther.”

Louise points to the collection of armchairs near the window and says, “There’s enough seats there for all of you and if you’re waiting here for half an hour it’ll probably be more comfortable.”

Vanya looks over her shoulder at where Louise is pointing and stands up, grabbing her mug and checking to see if the others also get up before going across. Five is the last to get up and when he reaches the armchairs, Louise is pleased to see that Vanya and Diego have left a seat empty between the two of them where Five plonks down.

Louise smiles and, deciding to give them the privacy to talk, squats down to start filling up the syrup bottles and clean the cupboards behind the counter. It’s a slow and long process that results in Louise being surrounded by bottles and old receipts and she almost doesn’t hear when someone clears their throat.

She jumps up and is greeted with Five leaning expectantly against the counter. As she takes in his relaxed posture and loose shoulders, she hears the doorbell ring and sees Allison and Klaus making their way over the Vanya and Diego.

“Another latte and two long blacks,” He says placing the three mugs on the counter, “Also a caramel latte and a latte with one shot of vanilla and two of caramel with whipped cream.”

His voice is heavy with disgust as he says the last drink and Louise sympathises; it sounds like something off the Starbucks menu.

She makes the coffee, watching how Five stares at his siblings with something that looks like honest affection and something warm blooms in her chest as she realises he’s never looked so happy before.

“You got your family back,” She says to him and he arches an eyebrow at her.

After a few moments he replies a quiet, “Yeah.”

As she hands him a tray with all the mugs on it and watches him make his way back to the armchair Louise realises that the siblings who had previously seemed so disconnected together despite being close to one or two of the others, seem like a proper family, all sitting together drinking coffee. Even with the conspicuously empty armchair that occasionally flickers with the outline of a person in the light and the absence of the sibling called Luther, the five of them seem happier than Louise has ever seen them before and she can only think that maybe while the Umbrella Academy has been completely disbanded, their family is slowly pulling itself back together.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to hit me up at my tumblr if you wanna chat or throw tomatoes. either sounds chill. i'm neverdoingmuch.


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